


Tomorrow's Child

by SandraDeee



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M, Romance, Surprise kid from the future, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-12 11:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7100554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandraDeee/pseuds/SandraDeee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Audrey thwarts an assassination attempt on Reverend Driscoll, she soon discovers a troubling connection to the would-be assassin, a connection that will make her question everything she knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Past/Present

**Disclaimer** : All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

 **Author’s Note:** Originally begun in August 2011 and completed in 2012.  It is decidedly AU from about episode 2.1 onward. I don’t think there’s anything quite like this one, story-wise, in the _Haven_ fandom, so I’m interested to know what you think. J

* * *

 

**Part One: Past/Present**

Audrey Parker was in a good mood. Other than being called to the Grey Gull to handle an unruly customer who was disturbing the peace, the day had been mostly quiet, a much welcomed respite from what had become the standard crisis-of-the-day holding pattern.

Not that Duke Crocker needed too much help breaking up the commotion. As she had arrived, Audrey watched with disdain as he head butted (and subsequently knocked out) the man who had shown up higher than a kite and threatening to unleash the powers of darkness on all those who dared eat shrimp.

With the man safely carted away in an ambulance, the incident certainly gave the restaurant-goers something to talk about. Granted, it wasn’t quite as remarkable as Harold Miller’s sow, which had given birth the week before to a piglet that truly did have what appeared to be tiny wings. When pigs fly, indeed.

So with the crisis at the Gull averted, Audrey scolded Duke into getting checked out by the paramedics, gathered statements from the witnesses on the scene, and arranged a police guard at the med center for the assailant until which time he could be taken into police custody.

After questioning some of the customers and employees, Audrey went to the outer deck of the restaurant, which boasted a gorgeous view of the Atlantic, and saw Duke sitting on the edge of a bench being checked over and looking generally annoyed.

“Not a great way to spend a birthday,” she commented.

“How did you…?” Duke began as a paramedic removed a blood pressure gauge. Audrey merely raised her eyebrows. “Right. _Detective_ Parker.”

“You’ve got a real jerk of a boss to make you work on your birthday.”

“Yes, he’s a cruel, cruel man. Charmingly handsome but cruel.”

“Is he going to live?” Audrey sardonically asked the paramedic whose name she knew she had heard half a dozen times and still struggled to remember. Was it Rusty or Dusty?

“Vitals check out strong.” The paramedic looked directly at Duke. “If you experience nausea or dizziness, seek medical attention immediately. And no more using your head as a weapon.”

“Got you, Dusty,” Duke replied.

_Dusty. That’s it._

Duke slid off the bench, and Dusty began to pack his belongings.

“Seriously, Duke? Head butting him?” Audrey’s arms were folded in a stance that suggested a firm scolding, but the slightest hint of amusement was all he needed to feel emboldened.

“I had to improvise,” he replied nonchalantly.

“Yeah, improvising is when you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you get a flat and don’t have a spare, so you stuff your tires with straw. Or it’s when you’re, oh, I don’t know, hijacked on a boat and can’t get a cell signal, so you put your phone in a bottle. But head butting a guy?”

“You think he’s Troubled?” Duke asked, attempting to steer the conversation in a different direction. The aching in his head was reminder enough that his method left much to be desired.

Audrey shrugged. “That or tripping on bath salts. Either way, not good. Tox screen at the med center will give us a better idea of what we’re dealing with. Do you know this guy?”

“I’ve seen him around a few times. Don’t know his name.”

“So you’re telling me that this incident is in no way associated with your, ahem, side business?”

“The man came in rambling about shrimp. Tracey misunderstood and started telling him all the ways we could prepare it for him. Guy lost it when she mentioned the special of the day.”

“And so you naturally decided to head butt him.”

“Are you going to let this go anytime soon?” Duke asked. “I’d almost rather deal with Nathan than this…this…”

“Scolding?”

“Something like that. Speaking of ol’ Nathan, how’s that separation anxiety coming along?”

“Duke…” Audrey’s tone warned. But Duke’s jab did have a ring of truth to it, though she would never admit it to him, or even to Nathan, for that matter.

She had grown so accustomed to having Nathan by her side from pretty early on in the day until sometimes late at night. He was, without question, her best friend. Not that she ever got all sentimental about it because, really, who has time to sit around and spew emotional crap? But with his dad gone, Nathan had stepped into some rather large shoes and discovered being the chief of police made him part politician, part delegator, part investigator, part budgeter, part plumber, part you-name-it all rolled into one. He was burning the midnight oil—which wasn’t unusual for either of them---but their oil was no longer quite so shared.

She missed the camaraderie.   She missed _him_.

“Fine, fine. Guess you’re not in the mood for a little ribbing at his expense.”

“Or here’s a thought. Maybe you two should learn to get along and like each other." 

Duke seemed to consider her suggestion. “Nah. That’s okay.”

“Why not?”

“It just…isn’t going to happen. Hey, it’s my birthday, right? Don’t I get a free pass with the questions and the scoldings?”

“You get—,” Audrey hesitated, not fully certain what offer. “So what does a girl get for the smuggler who has—or can get—everything?”

“Smuggler? That has such an ugly ring to it. I prefer entrepreneur.”

“And I’d prefer you not break laws, but we don’t always get what we want.”

“But you find me irresistible anyway.”

“How hard did you say you hit your head?” Audrey asked with a smile. “Seriously, what do you want for your birthday?”

“Would it help to ask for a get-out-of-jail-free card with no expiration date?”

“I’m pretty sure Chief Wuornos isn’t going for that.”

“Since when are you so formal with Nathan?”

“I’m not formal with Nathan. I’m formal with the Chief. Though I’m guessing Nathan wouldn’t like the idea either.” Audrey paused, realizing the distinction she had made was similar to the one Nathan had made about his father/Chief when they first met. Wow. It was one thing to be friends with a guy, but to start sounding like him? 

“When we were growing up, I never thought I’d live to see the day that Nathan Wuornos was the Chief of Police. It’s kind of a worst-case scenario for me, you know? Did he ever tell you about the time he let that greased pig loose in the high school?”

“What?!? _Nathan_?”

“Yeah, it was pretty funny until I got blamed for it.”

“Well, it does sound more your speed.”

“It’s my reputation. Gets me into all sorts of trouble.”

“No,” Audrey corrected, “you have a reputation _because_ you get into trouble.”

“Birthday boy’s prerogative. You know, I can’t really think of anything I want for my birthday.”

“You’re going to make me work for it, aren’t you?”

Duke shrugged.

“You know I’m not good at this kind of thing, right? I’m not thoughtful or creative with that stuff.”

“Fine. I’d like to spend my birthday with my good friend Audrey. Dinner on the boat. Just the two of us. No cancellations. No emergencies. I’ll cook.”

“You do realize I can’t plan emergencies, right? That’s why they’re emergencies,” Audrey hedged.

“Then you can turn your phone off, or throw away your stringed cans, or cut the apron strings with Nathan or whatever.”

“Oh, so this is about Nathan.”

“No, this is about you.”

“C’mon, Duke. You’d love to throw this in his face.”

Duke chuckled.

“What?” Audrey demanded.

“I feel like the chicken. You know, the one who crossed the road.”

“What are you talking about?” Audrey asked with a laugh.

“Everyone always asks why the chicken crossed the road. But me? I long for a better world where chickens can cross the road and not have their motives questioned.”

“Fine. Dinner. As friends.”

“Beneficial friends?” 

“Don’t push it.”

“But that’s not a no. You’re softening toward me.”

“Right. Keep telling yourself that.” Audrey glanced at her wristwatch. “Look, I need to get back to the station. File a report on this incident.”

“And the guy?”

“Can’t really do anything about him until he gets checked out at the hospital. You could speed things up for me. Come down to the station. Give your statement to Stan.”

“Why Stan?”

“Would you prefer Nathan?”

“I’d prefer you.”

“If I’m going to get everything done that I need to do before it’s crazy late…”

“Right. You driving?”

* * *

The short drive to Haven PD was relatively non-eventful. Audrey tried unsuccessfully to extract more information from Duke about Nathan and the greased pig incident, but he simply grinned and shook his head.

After pulling into the small parking lot adjacent to the station, Audrey was mildly annoyed to find no parking spots. “Seriously?” she muttered.

“Haven’s finest hard at work rounding up the bad seeds?” Duke smirked.

“More like there is an advisory board meeting, and the aldermen don’t seem to think the POLICE PARKING ONLY signs apply to them.”

“You could go all meter maid on their asses,” Duke suggested.

“Right. But then Nathan would have to put out the fire, and he has enough on his plate.” Audrey pulled back out of the lot and parallel parked two blocks over instead.

The two began the short walk to the large brick building.

“Can’t believe I’m going in here willingly,” Duke groused lightly. 

Audrey was about to respond when she saw Reverend Driscoll walk out of the Haven Police Department. His customary black attire gave the man an even more slight appearance, bordering on skeletal. A frown was deeply etched in his features. No doubt the town advisory board meeting had not gone according to his wishes. She wondered if Nathan would be in a much better mood. Probably not if he’d spent the last couple of hours dealing with the Rev.

Without realizing it, she had slowed her pace to a near crawl. Duke slowed his speed to match hers.

“The man always looks so cheerful,” Duke commented, still out of earshot of the evangelist. “I wonder what his secret is.”

Audrey nearly snorted at Duke’s sarcasm. “He’s only happy when he’s talking about fire and brimstone."

“I see you’ve been to one of his services.”

“Just one. It was enough.”

“Now you know why I’m Buddhist.”

“Who’s that coming up and talking to him?” Audrey asked, referring to a short, squat man.

“Hmmm?”

Audrey glanced sideways at Duke and realized that his attention was no longer on Reverend Driscoll.

Duke tore his eyes away from willowy blonde coming from the opposite direction toward Driscoll and his companion on the sidewalk. “Oh, that’s William Netherton.”

Audrey surveyed their surroundings to see what had preoccupied her companion and rolled her eyes when she realized the source of his distraction. “And you were wanting to make me dinner?”

“I…it’s not what you think,” Duke quickly defended turning his attention to Audrey. “Just, don’t you think she looks familiar somehow?” He looked back at the other woman.

“Maybe you’ve already ‘entertained’ her at some point,” Audrey replied beginning to walk toward the station again.

“Come on. I’m not a douche. Seriously. Look at her. Doesn’t she look like someone?”

“We all look like someone,” Audrey scoffed. “Some look like Satan.”

“You think I look Satanic? That’s great. Just great.”

Audrey laughed. “Not you. _Driscoll._ Geesh. Besides, I’ve always thought you had more of an Errol Flynn thing going on.” She glanced again at the woman Duke indicated. There was something about her that seemed oddly familiar, though it wasn’t something Audrey could pinpoint. The woman slowed her gait and appeared to be studying the Rev. “Hmmmm.”

“Who do you think she is?”

“She’s not from here?”

Duke studied her appraisingly. “Her…I would remember.”

“Down, birthday boy. She’s too young for you.”

“She’s probably a tourist.”

“Oh crap,” Audrey replied drawing her weapon from her holster.

“Tourists aren’t _that_ bad,” Duke protested.

But Audrey wasn’t listening. She had taken off running across the street toward the woman, 9 MM in hand. “Police! Drop it now, or I’ll drop you.”

The blond woman, only a few feet away from Reverend Driscoll, dropped the blade she was brandishing as she heard the gun cock. The man—Netherton was what Duke had called him—pulled the older minister further away from the young woman. The two looked on in horror.

“Turn around, hands up where I can see them,” Audrey commanded, her voice even and clear.

The younger woman exhaled loudly as she turned to face Audrey. Her blue eyes narrowed as she studied the policewoman. “My mom always said not to take a knife into a gunfight.”

“Did she also tell you not to conceal a knife with the intent of assault?”

“How do you know my intent?” the young woman challenged.

“Against the wall.” Audrey reached behind herself and withdrew her handcuffs from under the jacket she wore.

Duke, who had caught up with his companion, arched an eyebrow. _Where had she been keeping those?_ There was something saucy about seeing Audrey in action.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?”

“You’re such a hard-ass.” _Strange._ Audrey thought she heard a hint of admiration in the other woman’s tone.

“What’s going on here?” Driscoll demanded of Audrey.

“Looks like you dodged a bullet.”

“A blade,” the woman corrected.

“It’s called a figure of speech.” Audrey then directed her attention to Reverend Driscoll. “Any idea why you’re being targeted by Switchblade Barbie here?”

“I don’t know this girl,” Driscoll replied swallowing hard. His blue eyes fell on the young woman, who was barely out of her teens. “Child, you must repent.”

“Repent?” the girl spat out. “No, the world will be better when you’re not around to spew your poison. This isn’t over Rev. I will come back for you, time and time again until I get it right.”

Duke, who had remained merely an observer up until that point, commented, “That would probably qualify for the whole ‘getting used against you’ part.”

The young woman turned her head, smiled at Duke, and winked.

“Audrey, did you see that?” Duke asked dumbfounded.

Reverend Driscoll interjected, “An attempted assault right in from of the police station? Chief Wuornos will hear about this.”

Audrey surveyed him coolly. “Yeah, the Chief will probably tell you what I’m about to say. Say thank you and stay out of the way.”

“Come on, Rev. We’ll look into this later.”

Audrey turned the younger woman around. The stranger studied Audrey, seeming to take in every detail. 

Something in her look sent a chill down Audrey’s spine. It wasn’t menacing. Hardly. It was familiar. Was it possible she knew this stranger somehow? Audrey tried to push aside the thoughts. “Stop staring and start walking. I have a few questions for you.”

“I wouldn’t have expected less, Mom.”


	2. Attempted Murder and Pancakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah…I still don’t own Haven. With all the Troubles they have, I’m not sure I’d want to, to be honest with you.

**Part Two: “Attempted Murder and Pancakes”**  

“She called you ‘mom’?” Nathan asked, arms folded across his chest. Turning away from the two-way mirror that looked onto the small interrogation room, the word _impossible_ came to mind. But try as he might to dismiss what would in any other place be deemed impossible, he couldn’t. Not entirely. Especially not with so much of Audrey’s past still unknown.

“That’s what she said.” Her tone remained doubtful, but Nathan knew her well enough to know that Audrey wouldn’t let it go until she knew for certain. “We didn’t find any ID on her either.”

“Has she said anything else?”

“No. She declined a lawyer, and then she clammed up, except to ask for you.”

Nathan’s frown deepened. “She asked for the Chief of Police?”

“No, she asked specifically for Nathan Wuornos. Do you know her somehow?”

Once again looking through the two-way mirror, Nathan studied the girl’s features and shook his head. “No. I’ve never seen her before.”

“She’s playing an angle,” Duke interjected.

“You’re still here,” Nathan said flatly, his tone making it perfectly clear that Duke was a less-than-welcome visitor.

“Well, I was a witness to two crimes today.” Nathan opened his mouth to say something, but Duke quickly added, “An innocent bystander.”

“There’s nothing innocent about you.”

“What do you mean, ‘She’s playing an angle’?” Audrey asked steering the conversation back to the matter at hand.

“She knows what she’s doing,” Duke explained, ignoring Nathan’s glare. “When I mentioned the fact that she was incriminating herself, she smiled and winked at me.”

“She winked at you?” Nathan repeated incredulously.

“Normally I would think it’s just because I have that effect on women, but I’d also like to think I’m a…decently savvy guy.” Duke’s eyes fell on Audrey. “She knows exactly what she’s doing and exactly how to get a reaction out of you.”

“He’s right,” Audrey said to Nathan. “But something feels very wrong about this. Not that Reverend Driscoll doesn’t rub me the wrong way, but why go after him in broad daylight? He claims he doesn’t know her, but she sure seems to know him.”

Nathan leaned against the back of a chair, his eyes focusing through the glass and once again studying the girl. Her hair was blond, her complexion smooth like fine porcelain. While not an exact replica, she did without a doubt resemble Audrey. In addition to the shared coloring, the two had similar noses and lips, though the suspect was several inches taller, and her jaw line was shaped differently from Audrey’s.

“Is it possible…?”

Audrey shook her head. “She’s got to be nineteen or twenty. I don’t have any children, let alone one that’s grown up.”

“But Lucy could.”

Those three words that fell from Nathan’s lips felt mangled in Audrey’s mind. A grown daughter? Was it possible? By her own admission, she had no memory of her time as Lucy. And considering the fact that her own memories as Audrey Parker were suspect at best…

“That would make sense,” Duke commented. “She might be your sister.” Nathan and Audrey caught each other’s eyes, and Duke realized he was out of the loop. “What?”

Audrey hesitated.

“What?” Duke repeated.

Audrey swallowed hard before replying, “Duke, Lucy isn’t my mother. I _am_ Lucy.”

Duke looked at her blankly for a moment before breaking out into a broad smile and pointing at her. “You almost had me there for a second.”

“She’s not joking,” Nathan said.

“How is that possible? You’re young. Lucy would be middle-aged by now. Probably a very attractive middle-aged woman. Maybe even cougar worthy, but you’re _Audrey_.”

“Look, I could go into a long explanation, but I’m not going to. Not right now except to say, I don’t know how it’s possible, just that it is.”

“And you knew about this?” Duke asked Nathan, who remained silent. “Of course you did.” Duke drew in a deep breath, exhaled loudly, and then said, “Well, I have to say I like you better as a blonde.”

“Yeah, me too,” Audrey admitted. “So that emergency we talked about…”

“Right. No dinner tonight. You’re going to be busy.”

“Looks like it.”

“And you’re kicking me out,” Duke added, catching the direction the conversation was heading.

“But don’t forget to stop by and see Stan.”

“I’m expecting you to make this up to me, Audrey…Lucy…what do I call you exactly?”

“Audrey is fine.”

“Audrey,” Duke affirmed. “Right. Audrey.”

“If I’d known I could get him to leave the room by telling him your identity, I may have been tempted weeks ago,” Nathan commented after Duke left the room. “Sorry your dinner plans were interrupted.”

“No, you’re not,” Audrey countered.

“Maybe not entirely.”

“It’s his birthday,” she explained.

“Guess it’s too late to sing to him, so let’s find out what the hell is going on here.”

“Agreed.” She paused before adding, “You sing?”

* * *

The interrogation room at the Haven PD was what Audrey considered fairly typical. The block walls were gray with the occasional scuff mark. A wood table situated in the middle of the room was bolted to the floor.

The suspect sat on a wooden, backless bench, also affixed to the floor. Her eyes were peeled to a plastic wall clock, except for the periodic glance in the direction of the two-way mirror. Without a doubt, she knew she was being observed.

When Audrey finally re-entered the room, the young woman leaned forward eagerly.

“Is he coming?” she asked Audrey.

“Yes.”

“When?” the girl asked impatiently.

“Soon. But first I have a few questions for you.”

The suspect exhaled loudly through her nose resulting in a near snort. “Some things never change. You always have to be in control.”

“You talk like you know me,” Audrey said, her words measured.

The girl furrowed her brows. “I do.”

“Right. Because you say I’m your mother.”

“You are.”

“Look, you better try a different story because the one you’re telling isn’t—”

“Do you ever get tired of thinking you’re right all the time?”

The girl was baiting her. Duke was right; she knew exactly what she was doing.

Audrey changed tactics. “What’s your name?”

“Holly.”

“Holly what?” Audrey probed.

The girl hesitated. “Just Holly for now.”

“What’s _my_ name?”

Holly gave her an amused look, as though to say, ‘ _Seriously?’_ before replying, “Audrey Parker.”

Audrey pursed her lips before replying, “Not Lucy Ripley?”

The younger woman stared at Audrey for a moment before she broke into a broad grin and laughed. “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in ages.” She glanced at the clock again, her smile disappearing. “How soon will he be here?”

“You have someplace else to be?” Audrey asked.

“In a manner of speaking.”

“Yeah. Good luck with that.” Audrey paused before asking, “So you know about Lucy Ripley?” She tried to sound as conversational as she could, though internally her stomach was doing cartwheels.  
  
“You’re not really interested in what I know about Lucy. You’re interested in what I know about this version of you, how I could be your daughter.”

“This version of me?” Something about the way Holly said it drew Audrey’s curiosity. Holly spoke so pointedly, as though she really did know Audrey, but the policewoman couldn’t even begin to wrap her brain around it.

“No more questions.”

“So you’re not going to make this easy.”

“Life’s a bitch, definitely not easy.”

“You’re a cynical girl,” Audrey observed flatly.

Holly’s gaze fell squarely on Audrey. “Learned from my mom.”

A moment later when Audrey heard the door to the interrogation room open, she knew it was Nathan without even looking in his direction. Instead, she studied Holly, trying to gauge her reaction, considering she had asked for him by name.

For as cavalier as the young woman had been, the transformation on Holly’s face when Nathan walked into the room astounded Audrey. The girl’s hard expression softened. Gone was the arrogance, the swagger. Her blue eyes watered, her chin quivered. Audrey could have sworn that she was emotionally transfixed by him.

“I’m Chief Wuornos.”

“You’re so handsome,” Holly finally uttered. Her voice had lost its defiant edge, sounding to Audrey like she was in disbelief.

Nathan paused almost imperceptibly. If Audrey didn’t know him so well, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it. The girl’s reaction to him caught him off guard, but like the professional he was, he quickly regained his equanimity.

He did not comment on the girl’s words, instead launching into a conversation to gain more knowledge of the perpetrator. “Let’s start with your name. You told Officer Parker your name is Holly.”

“You were eavesdropping,” the girl chided with a smile.

“Says the girl who tried to kill someone today,” Audrey interjected.

“Holly what?” Nathan persisted.

“You think maybe I could ask _you_ some questions instead?” Holly asked.

“That’s generally not the way this works,” Nathan replied sliding onto the bench across from the girl and dropping a file onto the table with a loud _plop_.

“Maybe not, but how about a little _quid pro quo_?”

Nathan’s face remained impassive as he effectively ignored her suggestion. “Let’s talk about what happened earlier, your attempted assault on Reverend Ed Driscoll.”

“ _Please._ I think we all know I was trying to kill the bastard. So is it true that you have a thing for pancakes?”

The proverbial swagger was back.

During her time in law enforcement, Audrey had encountered many different types of suspects. There were those who could weave the soppiest of sob stories and those who made excuses and blamed everyone but themselves for their own actions. Regardless, the typical suspect had enough sense not to admit to any wrongdoing. But for this girl to not only confess to a crime but then in the next breath ask a totally unrelated and flippant question? Yep, this was a new one.

Nathan looked back at Audrey who had moved to the corner of the small room. His unspoken question was written across his face. _How does she know about pancakes?_ He was more surprised about the odd question than the confession.

He turned back to Holly, trying his best to effect a detached expression. “You do understand that you just confessed to attempted murder.”  
  
“And strangely, that’s not what you really want to talk about, is it? Don’t you see? This whole Driscoll thing…it doesn’t matter. I failed this time.”

“This time?” Audrey asked. “You make it sound like you’re going to get another chance.”

She fixed her gaze on Nathan. “Things didn’t exactly go the way I wanted, thanks to you-know-who over there. But when life hands you lemons…you sharpen the blade and try again.”

Audrey rolled her eyes. “So now you’re an optimist with really bad mixed metaphors.”

“Why’d you do it?” Nathan asked.

“Would you believe it was for the better good?”

“Not particularly,” Nathan replied.

“You should. There’s a storm coming, and the Rev is in the center of it. You can’t let down your guard. And it’s not just him. There are others.”  
  
“What do you mean?”

Holly shook her head, frustration poring from her. “We’re wasting time. Precious time. I just had to see you.”

“We don’t know each other,” Nathan stated flatly. “I’ve never met you.”

“And if everything goes according to plan, you never will. All of this will be nothing. I know this makes absolutely no sense to you, and this is selfish of me. I just…I needed to see you with my own eyes at least once. To talk with you.” Holly tilted her head, scrutinizing the frowning man who sat across from her. “I have your chin,” she said in wonderment as she reached up and stroked her jaw line. Holly glanced up at Audrey. “You always said I did, but I could never quite picture him.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “My…”

“Yeah. Congratulations. It’s a girl.”

“This has gone far enough,” Audrey stepped forward. “Holly, you’re confused. Sometimes when a person is Troubled—”

Holly groaned. “Come off it. Not every person needs to be fixed. Geesh.”

“So what you’re saying is without our knowledge, Chief Wuornos and I had a child together, and she rapidly aged into a snarky little…” Audrey caught herself. “You keep mentioning time and you seem to think you’re immune from all this.” She indicated their surroundings at the police station. “Next thing I know, you’re going to be telling me you are actually from the future.”

“Time is fluid. You should know that more than anyone. Madeleine. Lucy. Audrey.”

“This has gone on long enough. What game are you playing?” Nathan demanded. “You’re not my daughter.”

“Then why are you still here? If I’m a liar or a loon, why bother? As impossible as it seems, when you look at me, on some level, you have to know.”

“Who coached you?” Nathan asked. “Who told you what to say?”

Holly looked toward Audrey. “I’ve got to remember to get some pointers from you so if this ever comes up again, I can get through your incredibly thick skulls.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you really?”

“You know who I am. My name is Holly Wuornos,” she insisted.

“Let’s try this again. Who are you?” Nathan repeated.

The young woman closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. As she opened her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly, she appeared deflated. “What a wasted opportunity. I wish things had been different. But hey, on the upside, at least I got to meet you once. Even if you _do_ think I’m a psychotic liar.”

She reached out, her long fingers stroking Nathan’s hand. He flinched, pulling away from her reach.

“Right,” Holly sighed upon his reaction.

A drop of red hit the tabletop. “You’re bleeding,” Nathan observed.

Holly reached up, gingerly touching her nose. She drew her hand back, seeing the red on her slender digits. “Not yet,” she whispered. “Not yet.”

“I’ll get tissues,” Audrey offered.

“Don’t bother,” Holly replied. “Just a sign that I’ve overstayed my welcome.” She looked back at Nathan. “And to think I asked you about pancakes of all things. I should’ve asked about--”

Nathan and Audrey watched as the young woman began to fade before their eyes, her increasing transparency allowing the wall behind her to become more and more visible until she finally vanished into nothingness.

Only the two of them were left in a room virtually empty, except for the mountain of questions that seemed to suffocate them.

“What just happened?” Audrey’s voice pitched higher than normal.

Nathan exhaled loudly. “Don’t think it would help to put an APB out on her, do you?”

Audrey fought back nervous laughter. “How are you so calm?”

“I’m not.”

Audrey stared at her former partner. He looked decidedly unruffled to her, completely immune to the turmoil she felt churning within herself. “I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around this. Where did she go?”

“Back where she came from. _When_ she came from.”

“You can’t be serious. You don’t really believe this, do you? People don’t just go from one point in time to another.”

“Why not? Nearly thirty years ago, you were Lucy Ripley. You haven’t aged a day, we can’t account for those years, and you have someone else’s memories. You’re not like everyone else, Audrey. Who’s to say your daughter would be--”

“Normal?” Audrey finished for him.

“From one freak to another.”

The hint of warmth in his voice calmed Audrey ever so slightly. “You really think she’s our daughter?”

Jaw clenched, Nathan nodded solemnly.

“How can you be sure?”

Nathan sought Audrey’s eyes before finally uttering, “I could feel her touch.”


	3. Fate or Free Will?

**Part Three: “Fate or Free Will?”**

When Audrey climbed down the wooden stairs from her apartment above the Grey Gull, she found Duke at the ground level waiting for her.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his too-short pants as he approached her slowly. “Was hoping you’d be down soon.”

Audrey’s brows furrowed slightly. “You could’ve come up.”

“When you moved in, I told you I’d respect your privacy, not invite myself over or let myself in.” He shrugged. “Besides, I figured it was a bit early in the day for visitors.”

She managed a smile at that. “Well, what do you know? Duke Crocker keeps his promises.”

“You should remember that.”

“Look, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been meaning to thank you for not pressing charges against Sam Barthelemey.” Audrey looked out toward the deck. Had it only been two days ago that Duke was sitting there getting checked out by paramedics after his run-in with the then-unknown man? Two days ago that they’d been once again engaged in their push-pull flirting? How different the world could look in two days’ time. She’d been walking around numb since that afternoon when a young woman called her mom and tried to commit murder.

“You ever find out why he came in to the restaurant ranting about shrimp?”

Audrey looked at the tall man before her, willing herself to focus on the present. “It’s as big a mystery as why you decided you needed to head butt him.”

“Somebody won’t let me have a Taser. A guy’s got to improvise.”

Despite her inner turmoil, Audrey couldn’t help but smile. She had to give Duke credit. Lawbreaking and propositions notwithstanding, he was always good for a laugh. “I’ve heard the expression ‘using your head,’ but that was ridiculous.”

“You’re a bad woman with a long memory, Audrey Parker.”

“Memory’s a funny thing around here. Mr. Barthelemey woke up at the hospital and had absolutely no idea of what he’d done. Tox screens showed nothing unusual. His wife says nothing like this has ever happened before. He’s as gentle as they come. The best we can figure, he got caught in the crosshairs of someone who is Troubled.”

“But nothing yet?”

“No, nothing.”

“And no tall, leggy blonde either?”

Audrey shook her head. “Thus the ongoing saga of my identity crisis continues. Good times.”

Duke caught the dark intonation in her voice. “You do know that no matter what your name is, who you are or were, I still think of myself as your friend. As for you being a mom…”

“Here is comes,” Audrey groaned.

“What?” Duke asked innocently.

“The MILF jokes.”

“I’ll have you know, I’d never joke about that. I would mean every single word.”

Audrey patted him on the shoulder before she began walking toward her car. “We don’t know that she’s my daughter.”

“Were we checking out—looking at—the same girl?” Duke asked trailing her.

Audrey stopped in her tracks. “Yeah, about that. I still have my doubts, but if she is who she claims, that means you were ogling Nathan’s daughter.”

“You and _Nathan_?” Duke shuddered. “I mean, he’s a good enough looking guy, but how is that—” He covered his mouth.

“It’s a mad world.” The rollercoaster ride of the last two days was almost worth it just to see his reaction. “I should go. Not good to be late for work.”

“Even if you’re sleeping with the boss?” Duke called after her, frowning as she reached her car.

“Not yet,” Audrey called over her shoulder.

As Audrey climbed in her car, Duke muttered, “Yet. She said yet.”

* * *

“Lab results came back.” Stan dropped an envelope on Audrey’s desk. “Must’ve called in all the favors you had to get it rushed like that.”

“And some I don’t have,” Audrey replied. She looked up when she recognized that Stan was still standing there. “Thank you for bringing it by.”

Stan hesitated before leaving the detective’s office. _What was that all about?_

Audrey cast her eyes on the envelope. She supposed she should be tearing into it, but whatever it said would make everything all too real. As if a young woman showing up claiming to be her daughter wasn’t real enough. _Or surreal._

Maybe she should wait for Nathan. From where she sat at her desk, she craned her neck to see out the office door. Nathan’s office was across the hall, and his door was uncharacteristically closed. Had been since Reverend Driscoll had shown up fifteen minutes earlier. She didn’t like being on the outside wondering what was going on in there, what was being said. Nathan would tell her, that much she was sure of, but it wasn’t the same as actually being there.

In the two days since the mysterious appearance and subsequent disappearance of Holly Wuornos, Audrey had felt like her world was tilting on its axis. Everything she knew—or thought she did—was being called into question. Sure, she’d endured more than her share of strangeness since showing up in the coastal town. Hell, she’d even come to have a morbid appreciation for the bizarre, but this took the cake. If possible, it was even more puzzling than realizing she was Lucy. At least Lucy didn’t come out of left field, not like being told she was someone’s mom.

And it wasn’t just about her.

When Nathan told her he could feel the girl’s touch, Audrey had still been reluctant to accept her identity and had even gone so far as to fetch an evidence kit to collect the few drops of blood for analysis that Holly had spilled.

The set of Nathan’s mouth told her he disapproved of the testing, even though he cooperated when she took a DNA sample from him, swabbing skin cells from inside his mouth, for comparison. She’d taken a sample from herself, as well, to send with the blood sample.

Nathan couldn’t understand how she was so skeptical after everything they’d seen. But it turned out that even Audrey Parker had limits to what she would believe.

They’d spoken very little about it since. What was there to say? Until they knew what they were dealing with, it was a moot point and a stalemate. Nathan was convinced; she wasn’t.

Audrey eyed the envelope once again.

If the test results did show them to be the parents of the snarky blond girl who’d shown up and tried to kill Reverend Driscoll in broad daylight in front of the police station (ballsy, she had to admit), then it would have some far-reaching implications. That would obviously mean at some point, the two of them were going to have sex. Strange to think about, considering they had never even kissed or been out on a date. They would have a daughter that Nathan would never meet because he would be dead.

_No._

If nothing else, the test results would give her an idea of what they were dealing with. A troubled young woman or a daughter. Either way, Nathan was not going to die. She wouldn’t let it happen.

Audrey cursed her trembling hands as she peeled open the envelope flap and pulled out the analysis. Her eyes scanned the information. And then she saw it.

99.1% probability.

A daughter. She had a daughter. _Would have_ a daughter. A daughter with Nathan.

Impossible. And yet there it was.

Her head was spinning. Did she believe in fate? It was a question she had asked herself when she had tried to help Vanessa Stanley whose visions foretold deaths, including her own. Did knowing about future events give them the opportunity to alter what was to come, or did their knowledge lead them to the actions that would guarantee what was inevitable? It was a conundrum. Chicken or the egg.

Then there was the fact that Audrey had never thought of herself as mother material. Nathan was the one who always fussed after babies, who loved children. He was a natural. Children made her uncomfortable. Maybe it was because she had so many questions about her own past that she couldn’t conceive of being a parent.

Conceive. What a word.

A daughter with Nathan.

A daughter he’d never know.

She stood and crossed the room to close her door, but when she saw Nathan’s office door opening, she waited.

“You need to think about what I said,” Audrey heard Ed Driscoll say. “A day of reckoning is coming, Nathan. You have a responsibility--” The older man appeared in the doorway, his face red.

“I have a responsibility to the whole town, not just those you deem worthy,” Nathan shot back.

“Then you will suffer with them.” Driscoll looked over and saw Audrey standing across the hall in the doorway to her office. “So will you.”

Audrey watched the older man walk down the hall. He met up with a man in the lobby, who appeared to be William Netherton, before the two exited through the front door.

She looked across the hall at Nathan who now stood in his doorway. “Well, now, if I had a dollar for every time I was told I would suffer, I’d retire to Boca Raton and open an ice cream shop,” she joked weakly.

Nathan merely frowned, disappearing back into his office. Audrey followed through the open door. “What did Driscoll have to say?”

Nathan sat on the edge of his desk gripping the polished wood. “The usual. I’m damned. So are you. This town will be unless we purge the unclean.”

“Can we start with throwing _him_ out?” Audrey muttered.

“Fine by me.”

“You want a cup of coffee or something?”

“No, but that ice cream shop in Boca Raton is starting to sound nice.” The corners of his lips quirked, and despite everything, Audrey found herself smiling in response.

“I’ll put you to work, Wuornos. Only I’ll be the boss.”

He seemed to consider her offer. “Deal.”

Audrey hated to steer the conversation back to the Rev, but with everything that had happened, including Holly’s warning about him, she couldn’t let it go. “How much trouble is he going to cause over Holly?”

“He’s convinced we’re conspiring against him, that we are covering up the whereabouts of his would-be assassin.”

Audrey’s eyes widened. She didn’t entirely blame the reverend. “Did you tell him anything about what she said?”

“Didn’t see much point to it.”

“He’s not going to let it go.”

“You think?” Nathan paused, realizing how he sounded. “Sorry.”

“If you can’t be sarcastic with your baby mama, then who can you be sarcastic with, right?” Audrey’s attempt at humor jarred somewhat in her ears. “I’m either too loud or this place is too much like a busy police station.”

“Want to get out of here for awhile?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah. We have a lot to talk about.”

* * *

When the blue Bronco pulled into the driveway of Nathan’s house, Audrey let out the breath she didn’t even realize she’d been holding. They’d considered going to her apartment to talk, but with the close proximity to the Gull, it might’ve lacked the privacy they needed.

He unlocked the door of his house with Audrey close behind him. “Sorry. Haven’t cleaned up lately,” he apologized.

Nathan’s assessment of the mess made her smile. He had a few books on the couch, a jacket that wasn’t hung in the closet, and a glass sitting on the coffee table without – gasp! – a coaster. “Seriously, your version of not cleaning up lately looks way better than my ‘just cleaned’ looks.”

“You’ve not seen the bedroom.” As soon as the words slipped out, he squeezed his eyes shut. “I didn’t mean…”

“It’s just me, Nathan. I’m still me, and you’re still you. Even if we officially live in the land of crazy.” She walked to the sofa, picked up the books, and moved them to the coffee table before sitting.

“You want something to drink?”

She shook her head. “We’re still on call, so anything I’d want to drink, I can’t have anyway.”

“Right.” Nathan sat on the sofa. Not too close, she noted.

Audrey inhaled deeply. “There’s no handbook for how to have this conversation, so I’m going to come right out and say it. We have a daughter. Or _will_ have a daughter, I guess is more accurate.”

“Told you so.”

“DNA test confirmed it.”

“I like the name Holly,” he commented casually. “It was my mom’s name.”

Audrey slipped off her shoes and turned to face him, drawing her legs to her chest. “I remember you telling me that once. That it was your mom’s name, I mean.” She rested her cheek against the cushion of the couch. “This is all a lot to take in.”

“I don’t want you to feel weird around me or that you have to avoid me.”

“I don’t.”

Nathan looked unconvinced. “You just spent two days avoiding me.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. I’m sorry.”

“You were just trying to process everything that happened.”

“In some other time, there is, was, or will be an _us_ ,” she replied softly. “I’ve been mulling over it, what it means.”

“What did you come up with?” he asked.

“Other than evidently our offspring will be good looking but murderous? I don’t know.”

“You do know that I don’t expect us to…”

“I know. But just so _you_ know, the thought of us doesn’t weird me out.”

“No?” he sounded surprised.

“No. It _is_ unexpected. I hadn’t really let myself go there, you know? Not until _she_ showed up, but I can kind of see it now. If circumstances were right or we were really drunk. Have you? Thought about it, I mean?”

“Audrey, you’re the only woman I can feel, which is a miracle in itself. But you’re also smart and funny and caring..” he caught himself and Audrey could see him trying to rein it in. “I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it. Even before Holly showed up,” he tentatively added.

It was her turn to be surprised. “But you’ve never acted on it.”

“You’re my friend. I’ve never wanted to risk losing that friendship if things didn’t work out with us. And you’re my partner. I count on you. Haven counts on you.”

“You _would_ be lost without me. It’s true,” Audrey teased.

“Actually,” Nathan began, his earnest tone a contrast to her joking one, “I think I might be.”

She shook her head slightly, letting his words sink in. “Does it feel like we’re in confessional?”

“Minus the priest?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t know. I’m not Catholic.”

“I’m not sure I am either.” Audrey furrowed her brows. There were so many things she simply didn’t know about herself anymore. Where did the other Audrey Parker’s memories and personality end and hers begin? And somehow she brought—would bring?—another life into that crazy mix? “I’m also not exactly sure how you and I would’ve gone from where we are to being the parents of a ridiculously sarcastic young woman…”

Nathan fought back a smile. “You really don’t know where she gets her sarcasm from?”

“You, of course.”

“Not me. Unlike my chin,” he said rubbing his jaw line, “sarcasm is not hereditary.”

“Not you,” she conceded. The tone between them was no longer teasing. “Nathan, when she saw you, the look on her face--”

Nathan nodded. “I know. I realize what it means.”

Tears stung Audrey’s eyes, though she willed them away. She hated tears, hated the blurred vision, hated the lack of control. Still, the tears persisted. “I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere.” He closed the distance between them, reached out, and with the pad of his thumb, wiped a tear that slid down her cheek.

Her hand closed over his as he brought it away from her face. She watched as his eyes fluttered. Of course. Simple touches affected him. He quickly regained composure, putting on a passive expression, though she could see the spark in his eyes. She considered that maybe she should let go, but she couldn’t. Not when his fingers were intertwined with hers and felt strong and warm. Not when he’d been starved of physical contact for years. Not when feeling him was the most _natural_ thing in the world.

_She didn’t want to let go of him._ The thought practically slammed her in the chest.

Audrey found her voice. “She blamed the Rev for what happened. I wish we’d had time to find out more.”

“You think we’ll see her again?” Nathan asked, his eyes cast down on her thumb as she lightly stroked the palm of his hand.

“She was adamant that she would try again to kill the Rev.”

“So yes.”

Audrey nodded.

“It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it?” he commented.

“What?”

“Here we’ve got a sworn duty to protect and uphold the law, and our daughter is a would-be assassin.”

Audrey fell silent. What was their relationship like that she would someday encourage her daughter to use her gifts (Troubles?) to travel back in time to commit murder? “So this time-travel thing. That’s a new one.”

“Is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just thinking about what Holly said. Time being fluid. You knowing that better than anyone, according to her.”

“That’s just it. I _don’t_ know it better than anyone. I don’t think I know _anything_ these days.”

“Holly knew about Lucy.”

“And someone named Madeleine,” Audrey added.

Nathan nodded. “Which makes me think Lucy wasn’t your first visit to Haven.”  
  
“Yeah. I did a search on Madeleine at the _Herald_. Tried different spellings. And Maddie. Got nothing but an article on a mad dog.” She paused, realizing she’d left herself wide open for a joke at her expense. “Not a word.”

“Wasn’t going to say it. Dave? Vince?”

“Claimed to have never heard of her, which is possible. But when I think of how much everyone’s kept hidden about Lucy, I just…I’m looking for secrets around every corner, you know?”

“Maybe Holly…”

Audrey tried to imagine the rancorous girl helping her, and she was drawing a pretty blank mental picture. “I’m pretty sure she hates my guts.”

“What?” Nathan asked incredulously.

“You’re kidding, right? You’re clearly the favorite parent.”

Nathan shrugged. “The grass is always greener…she doesn’t know me. Wants to know me. That’s all. If—when—she does show again, we need a plan.”

“Are we protecting the Rev?”

“We have to,” Nathan asserted. “As much as I may not like him, he doesn’t deserve to be murdered.”

“Holly seemed to think his death would assure your life. Nathan, if there was ever a choice between saving him or saving you, it’s not even a question in my mind.”

“But the fact that we know something is going to happen, that I have to be careful, don’t you think that’s enough?”

“I guess that depends on whether you believe in fate.” She squeezed his hand lightly.

“Do you?" 

Audrey considered his question. “I believe in free will. We make our own fates. And I’m not going to lose you.”

“Careful, Parker. You might make a guy think you care.”

Groaning, Audrey drew her hand away from his, only to grasp onto the collar of his shirt. Leaning forward, she pressed her lips lightly against his jaw, trailing tiny kisses until she reached his mouth. She nipped at his lips before leaning her forehead against his. “You’re an idiot. You know that, right?”

“Becoming clearer all the time,” Nathan replied, his breathing shallow.

“Do you want me to back off?”

“Hell no.” Pulling her into another kiss, he buried one hand in her hair, while the other found its way to her waist, gently tugging until she was on his lap, her legs straddling him.

For all its newness, the kiss was achingly soft. She wondered if he thought her to be fragile. She wanted to cry out that she wasn’t delicate, that the only way she would break was if he let go of her. But that would mean letting go of him, and she wasn’t about to do it, not when he tasted so good.

As though reading her mind, his lips parted under hers and they began an exploration of sensations, of growing fervor. Everything within her felt heightened at his touches, as though a current flowed between them jolting her into an awareness she’d never perceived before.

And suddenly, he broke their kiss, his breathing labored. A languid smile spread across his features.

“What do you feel?” she whispered.

“You,” he managed.

Audrey cupped his face in her hands, tracing the lines, the angles, and studying him. He leaned into her touch, which only fueled her desire to explore him further. “Do you feel all of me, or just where our skin touches?”

“I can feel your weight on me.” She subconsciously moved slightly, and he drew in a quick breath before smiling. “When you move against me, I feel the movement and some…sensations…but it’s nothing like actual skin-on-skin.”

“Tell me.”

“I feel your warmth. When you were kissing me along my jaw, it…it tickled.” He closed his eyes a moment, gathering himself, before opening them again to meet her gaze. “Right now, the tips of your fingernails are scraping my skin. And the feelings are flowing in waves, each one building on the other. It’s overwhelming. It’s…perfection.”

“I think I’m starting to understand how we go from friends to more.” With that, Audrey reached between them, slowly working the buttons of his denim shirt, allowing him to drink in the cavalcade of feelings she knew she had to be eliciting. She wanted to make him feel; she wanted to feel him.

She pushed the shirt off his shoulders and swallowed hard as her eyes fixed on his bare torso. Broad, lean muscled shoulders and chest narrowed to a chiseled abdomen. She licked her lips. _Nathan was built_. Why had she never noticed before? One thing she did know is she would never be able to look at those tight gray t-shirts of his in the same way again.

Taking his hands, she placed them at her waist, along the hem of the sweater she wore. With deliberation, his hands found their way under the garment, and his fingers splayed along the tender flesh of her abdomen. She leaned to kiss him again, eager to continue this expedition they had begun together.

The vibrating and subsequent ringing of both their phones evoked a groan from him and a wry chuckle from her. “We’ve got to work on our timing,” Audrey sighed. She grabbed her phone from her back pocket as Nathan grabbed his from his phone holster. Examining the display, they saw a text message appeared in bold letters.

**_All available officers. 10-59 Code 2. Good Shepherd Church._ **

“Hostage situation,” he commented as she quickly moved off his lap. He deftly buttoned his shirt. _Impressive_ , she thought, _for a guy who can’t feel the buttons._

Audrey pulled on her shoes, and a feeling of dread replaced the butterflies that had previous occupied her stomach. “At the church? It’s got to be Holly.”


	4. A New Kind of Crazy

******Part Four: “A New Kind of Crazy”**

The police barricade prevented onlookers from getting close to the Good Shepherd Church, but the barricade certainly didn’t do much to quell the number of people who had arrived on scene, some drawn by curiosity, others by their concern for loved ones.  
  
Audrey and Nathan pushed through the crowd, ducking under the police line but unable to evade the nervous tension and the growing murmurs of the alarmed crowd that filtered through the air. 

“What do we have?” Nathan asked Stan, who hastened toward the two new arrivals as soon as he caught sight of them.

“Hostage situation, Chief. William Netherton took Collie Stappert. They’re up in the steeple.”

Nathan and Audrey exchanged a quick look. _No Holly._  

“Is he armed?” Nathan asked. 

“We don’t know. There are conflicting reports.” 

“Where’s Reverend Driscoll?” Audrey asked, still not completely convinced that the trouble at the church was unrelated to Holly. 

“He’s in the church, trying to diffuse the situation,” was Stan’s quick reply. 

Nathan reached into the back of the nearby supply van removing a kevlar vest. “Seems like he’d add fuel to the fire.” 

“The Rev does have influence in this town,” Audrey reminded him, reaching for a vest for herself while Nathan pulled his over the button-up shirt he wore and fastened the straps. “What’s the connection between Netherton and Collie Stappert?” 

“As far as we know, nothing. They’re acquaintances. Both worship here,” Stan explained. “Witnesses say she was here as a volunteer, cleaning the sanctuary, as she does every week. Netherton and Driscoll had a meeting. Everything seemed fine when Netherton went out for a smoke and just snapped. He went back in, started talking about the unclean, getting more and more agitated. The more people tried to calm him, the worse it got.”

Dread coiled in the pit of Audrey’s stomach. Frowning she commented, “Sounds familiar.”  

Nathan nodded. “Too bad this isn’t going to be as easy to fix as a headbutt.” He turned back to Stan. “Have you made direct contact?”

“No, I followed protocol. Waited for you, but Reverend Driscoll has been in the church with them for going on ten, fifteen minutes now.”

Nathan’s jaw clenched as he considered their options. “We need to make contact. Phones?”

“He didn’t answer when the Rev tried him on his cell phone. The steeple chamber is mostly used for—”

“Storage,” Nathan supplied. “No phone up there.”

“Right.”

“Somehow I don’t think a megaphone is the way to go,” Audrey said, craning her neck and looking all around them at the growing crowd.

“No. We go in.”

* * *

 

Nathan and Audrey entered the church, sidearms drawn. Nathan immediately went to an ancillary set of stairs.

“You know your way around here,” Audrey noted quietly.

“Spent some time here.”

_With Hannah_ , Audrey realized.

Nathan lifted his finger to his lips and the two quietly ascended the stairs, watchful of the dangers around them.

Reaching the top of the stairs, they were met by Edmund Driscoll.

“He’s locked the door,” the older man said stepping away from the chamber door and blocking the police officers’ paths.

“Where are your keys?” Nathan asked.

With thinly veiled disgust, the older man drawled, “I don’t know.”

Audrey shook her head. “You’re lying, Reverend.”

“God will forgive me this one,” Driscoll said with certainty.

Nathan pushed past the Rev, and Audrey withdrew a small case from her back pocket. Driscoll’s frown deepened upon seeing what she held: tools for picking the lock if need be.

“Mr. Netherton, it’s Nathan Wuornos. Officer Parker is with me. Can you hear me?”

“Nathan!” Collie Stappert cried out plaintively from within the chamber.

“Are you all right, Mrs. Stappert?” he asked.

“I—yes.” Her voice sounded strained, understandable considering the circumstances.

“Mr. Netherton, please open the door so we can talk.”

Netherton’s muffled reply made its way through the thick oak door. “Go away, or this isn’t going to end well.”

“Mr. Netherton, all we want to do is talk,” Nathan replied calmly. “This doesn’t have to get ugly.”

The sound of choking laughter came from within. “It already _is_ ugly! You are one of the unclean, Wuornos, and you don’t even see it. This place can only be purified with blood.”

“Mr. Netherton,” Audrey began evenly, “I know things are very confusing right now, but Chief Wuornos and I are here to help.”

“You were never a help, Lucy. You gave them shelter, just as you do today.”

It was a piece of her past, thrown out as an afterthought. Audrey pushed for more information. “What are you talking about, Mr. Netherton?”

Nathan and Audrey were met with momentary silence. Finally, Mr. Netherton spoke up again, this time certainty in his voice. “The unclean. The damned. This can’t go on, or you will damn us all.”

Nathan persisted, “Then open the door. Let Collie go, and we will talk about it. There’s nothing that can’t be fixed. No one has to get hurt.”

The sound of breaking glass filtered through the door.

“Mr. Netherton—“

“I will be the lamb of God! I will be the sacrifice!”

The two heard Collie scream from within the room, followed by raspy sobs.

“Mr. Netherton? Mrs. Stappert, are you okay? What’s happened?” Nathan called out.

The door swung open as Collie Stappert practically flew from the room and into Reverend Driscoll’s waiting arms. “He’s dead!”

Driscoll soothed the sobbing woman as Nathan and Audrey entered the small room in the steeple of the church, both on high alert. It was mostly a storage space, Audrey noted, just as Nathan had said. Boxes were stacked, obscuring their view, but a puddle of red liquid was spreading outward on the floor. Rounding a corner created by the placement of the stored items, Audrey gasped.

William Netherton’s contorted body was half in the room and half outside the building, impaled on the glass of the window he’d broken.

“Dammit,” Nathan cursed as he lowered his pistol.

* * *

 

Outside the Good Shepherd Church, Audrey and Nathan stood near the blue Bronco. The barricade remained around the building, but the last marked police car had departed, leaving the two detectives to mull over the afternoon’s events. 

“What makes a man go from being perfectly normal to a homicidal-slash-suicidal maniac?”

“Toxicology’s running tests,” Nathan replied with his characteristic stoicism.

“Did he have family?”

“A wife. Two grown sons.” Nathan swallowed hard. Netherton’s oldest son Jake had been a year behind him in school.

“Folks are scared. First Sam Barthelemey going crazy at the Gull, now William Netherton.”

“But what’s the connection?”

“Other than the excursion they both took to Crazy Town?”

“Not the first time people’ve gone crazy around here. Find the connection, and we find the root cause. We need to talk to Barthelemey again.”

“Right.”

Nathan looked up at the church building. Netherton’s body had been removed from the scene and taken to the morgue. The bloodstains, which streamed down the white clapboard exterior of the church and the ragged, red-tinged glass of the broken window served as reminders of the afternoon’s events. “Quite a visual isn’t it? I’m sure Driscoll will find a way to use it to his advantage.”

“He already is.” Audrey tilted her head in the direction of the edge of the church lawn. There, surrounded by at least two-dozen people stood Edmund Driscoll, speaking to the group, who nodded their heads in assent.

“He’s stirring the pot.”

Audrey crossed her arms, her frown deepening. “It makes me wonder.”

“What?”

“Turns out Netherton had no weapons. The Rev had to know that. He kept us out of there.”

Nathan looked at her skeptically. “You think Driscoll wanted _this_ to happen? That’s extreme, even for him.”

“Is it so extreme? It makes me think of Holly.” Audrey leaned against the Bronco. “She was so adamant that Driscoll be stopped. That he was the key to all the bad happening here.”

“Murder isn’t justifiable.” 

“I just—I wonder if this is the catalyst for whatever happens.”

Nathan leaned against the Bronco next to her. “We can’t go around second guessing our every step.”

“I just wish there was some way to know.” She looked up at Nathan, her eyes fixed on him. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, and she didn’t even know where to begin. All she did know was she couldn’t lose him, and right or wrong, Edmund Driscoll’s death didn’t seem like such a grievous price to pay if it came down to that.

They had crossed a line today, some invisible barrier that she no longer wanted to observe. Touching Nathan, being touched by him, made her feel like she was awakening from a long slumber, every inch of her body suddenly aware of him, what had been staring her in the face all along. She’d practically foisted herself on him, not that he’d complained.

The spark that had ignited between them smoldered still. Being near him, she was all too conscious of it. “What a day.”

“Parker, when this is all over, would you like to—”

“Yes,” she interrupted, caught herself, and shook her head ruefully. “Sorry. I should let you finish.”

His eyes fixed on hers. “Would you like to go out to dinner? We could get … lobster.”

Her brows furrowed. “I thought you didn’t like lobster.”

Nathan shrugged as his lips curled into a small smile. “I don’t. Much. But I do like you.”

Her heartbeat quickened. “The answer’s still yes.”

“Good. Then it’s a … a date.”

She nodded. “Definitely. Though I’d be just as happy eating pancakes.”

Nathan’s eyes shone with a light she’d not seen before, causing her stomach to do somersaults. “Let’s get out of here. See if we can find Sam Barthelemey.”

* * *

“I’m telling you, Officer Parker. I still don’t remember anything that happened at the Grey Gull,” Sam Barthelemey stated, his voice a near plea. “I wish I could help. I really do.” 

“Is this really necessary?” Mary Barthelemey asked soothingly rubbing her husband’s arm. “Sam has been through quite an ordeal already.” Her eyes held a silent accusation as she looked at Nathan and Audrey who sat on the sofa opposite the loveseat where the Barthelemeys sat.

“Mary, our intention isn’t to add to Sam’s ordeal,” Nathan replied calmly and then turned his focus back to the man, “but if there’s anything at all you haven’t mentioned, even something that doesn’t seem particularly strange or important, it might be helpful.”

“There’s nothing. I…the last thing I remember before waking up in the hospital was being at the Brand Pier. I was going to the waterfront shops, looking for a birthday present. It was an ordinary day. There were a few tourists. One asked how to get to the police station. I think her wallet may have gone missing or something, but other than that…”

“Could you give a description of this woman?” Nathan asked.

“Pretty. Blond. Tall. Slender. Young. Not much more than a kid. Maybe twenty.” Sam squeezed the bridge of his nose before looking back at Audrey. “I think she may have looked a little like you, but hell, maybe my mind’s not done playing tricks on me.”

Audrey shot Nathan a look as though to ask, _‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’_

“Was there anyone else you spoke with?” Nathan asked. “Any shopkeepers? Neighbors? Friends?” 

Sam shook his head. “No. No one.”

Nathan and Audrey hadn’t even pulled out of the Barthelemey driveway before she was pronouncing, “It has to be her.”

“So perhaps Sam Barthelemey encountered Holly before his episode. Doesn’t necessarily mean anything.” Audrey harrumphed at his words. “A theory is derived from evidence, not evidence from a theory. We don’t even know that what happened with Barthelemey is connected to Netherton.”

Audrey nodded. “I know. I’m breaking the cardinal rule of investigation, but I just have a _feeling_ about this, Nathan. Somehow our daughter, the poster girl for sarcastic-assassins-r-us, is tied to this.”

Nathan was less than convinced. “And earlier, we were so certain that we were heading toward a hostage stand-off with Holly as the perp.”

She groaned. “True. I was thinking if she didn’t improve her timing, she never was going to be born. Guess I can’t blame her for that one.” Audrey’s eyes fell on Nathan. His knuckles were white from clenching the steering wheel so tightly. “Relax. It’s a joke.”

“But we were…” he struggled to find the right words, finally settling on, “in the middle of something.”

“Yeah. That we were.” Audrey licked her lips, remembering the warmth of Nathan’s skin, how his eyes fluttered as she unbuttoned his shirt and her fingers grazed his chest, his hardness as she straddled his lap.

“What do you think would’ve happened if we’d not got the call?”

Audrey’s cheeks colored, though she wasn’t sure if it was from Nathan’s question or from her own lustful thoughts. “Round three or four? I don’t know.” She looked out the window, staring at the coastline as they drove on County Road Y. “Geesh. This conversation isn’t awkward or anything.”

“Sorry,” he replied, his gaze fixed ahead. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“No, I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. I started this. Ever since Holly arrived, I’ve been freaked out, wondering if she is who she says she is. Wondering what we are to each other.”

“You’ve thought about it.”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“And I came very close to pouncing on my best friend. And boss. And not giving a damn about the consequences.”

“That’s good to know.” He sounded pleased, she noted.

“If you weren’t driving right now, I would smack you or flick your ear or something.”

“I vote for the ‘or something’. Holly didn’t mention she would make people crazy, other than the normal ‘she’s exasperating’ crazy, which I’m pretty sure she inherited from you.”

“No, no, no. I’m positive she got that from you,” Audrey countered. “Still. It makes me wonder.” She pulled out her cell phone, dialed the police station with Stan’s extension, and put him on speakerphone. “Stan, it’s Audrey and Nathan. Have you had a chance to go through the witnesses’ statements yet?”

_“Reading through them right now,”_ came the voice on the other end of the line.

“Who did the witnesses see William Netherton interact with?”

_“Reverend Driscoll. Collie Stappert, of course. Netherton’s wife, who’d brought lunch for him and the reverend.”_ Audrey could barely discern the sound of Stan rustling papers. _“Oh, and there was one other person. A young woman. No positive ID. Just a description.”_

Audrey perked up. “Blond hair? Tall and thin?”

_“Yes. How did you know?”_

“Just a feeling,” Audrey replied looking over at Nathan. “Did anyone overhear their conversation?”

_“No, and this is where it gets strange. Phillip Kasner—he’s the groundskeeper of the cemetery on the church property—said that Netherton grabbed the girl’s arm and then pulled away as though he’d been burned. It was right after that he’d rushed into the sanctuary and took Collie Stappert hostage.”_

“Did anyone see where she went?” Nathan asked.

_“Not that anyone mentioned.”_

“Maybe in all the excitement, she slipped away,” Audrey suggested. “Thanks, Stan.” She pressed the END CALL function on the phone. “So what was it you were saying about theories and evidence, Chief?”

“This would be evidence,” Nathan conceded. “So Holly is or was back from whenever.”

“And at the church but didn’t go after the Rev.”

“It doesn’t add up. But what we do know is two men encountered her two days apart, and those encounters were followed by psychotic episodes.”

“Great. Brings new meaning to driving someone crazy, doesn’t it?”

“Think she’s still here?”

“We’ll know soon enough.”

* * *

_Word travels fast in a small town._

At least, that had been Duke Crocker’s experience. When Heidi Thompson streaked down Main Street, everyone knew within an hour. When Father Michael was caught _in flagrante_ with the parish secretary in the confessional, news spread like wildfire.

Now the Gull was buzzing with gossip about William Netherton’s suicide at the Good Shepherd Church, wondering what would make an ordinary man kill himself in such a gruesome way. Duke thought he’d caught whispers of the Troubles, but the music playing in the tavern—and his personal preference to let the Troubles go for one evening—drowned out the sentiment.

From behind the bar, he dried glasses, made small talk, and mixed drinks. It was only by chance that he happened to look through the windows to the outside deck to see a blond head pass by. At first, he thought it was Audrey coming home, on her way upstairs to her apartment. But then it struck him that the blonde seemed too tall, her hair not quite the right shade.

Damn.

He looked to his regular bartender who had just arrived for the night and was tying on her apron. “Stef, I’m heading upstairs for a few minutes.”

“Sure, Duke,” the young red-headed bartender smiled back at him. He’d hired her because she made a mean Long Island, but her delicate features and broad smile certainly hadn’t hurt her employment chances, nor had her other assets located about twelve inches below that smile.

Duke practically bounded out the door, taking the outside steps two at a time. When he reached the top deck, he saw the blonde working the lock of the apartment.

“You keep popping up.” He tried to sound casual, but his near breathlessness showed itself.

She turned to regard him with a half smile. “Like a bad penny?”

“Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” She turned her attention back to the door and straightened when she finally heard the click that indicated it was unlocked.

Her hand fell on the doorknob, ready to turn it, but Duke closed the distance between them and placed his larger hand over hers, stilling her movements. “I generally don’t poke my nose into other people’s business, but Audrey is my friend, this is her place, and I’m her landlord.”

Her hand still under his, she turned her head to look up at him. “Wow. You said all of that in one breath. Impressive.”

Duke’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. She was beautiful. Porcelain skin and pale blue eyes that surveyed him with a lazy sexuality. He wondered how flexible those long, lean limbs of hers were. “Are you really Audrey’s daughter?”

“Who do you think taught me how to pick a lock?” At his wide-eyed expression, she added, “Scary, isn’t it?”

“Not the word I’d choose.”

“What word would you choose?”

He pried her hand off the doorknob, though he still held on to her. “I’m not a fan of word games.”

“Too bad. I have a word for you.” She cleared her throat. “So, are you going to let me have my hand back, or are we permanently attached from here on out?”

Duke let go of her hand, but he didn’t back off. “What are you doing here?”

“We should talk. Inside. Unless you want to chance being overheard.”

Duke considered her words for a moment before he exhaled loudly as the two went inside Audrey’s eclectic apartment.

 


	5. Choosing

**Chapter Five: “Choosing”**

Duke Crocker watched with curious eyes as the blonde examined the contents of Audrey’s apartment with keenest interest. She was on a quest of discovery, he noted as her long fingers glided over the fringe of a lampshade and she shook her head slightly in surprise. She continued her examination, fingering the tablecloth that covered the surface of the small kitchen table. Her fingers finally settled on the keys of the piano, striking a broken chord before recreating a brief, haunting melody. She squeezed her eyes shut, and for the first time he considered that he was being treated to a glimpse of the real person, not the swaggering façade.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

From across the room, she looked back at him. “Holly.” With her fingers, she brushed her hair out of her face, twisting it around into a makeshift bun and using a pencil she saw lying on a table to secure it in place.

Duke swallowed hard. That was the name of Nathan’s mother, though he couldn’t see much resemblance between this willowy young woman who exuded raw appeal and the warm woman who had been her grandmother. _Nathan’s daughter_. Duke recoiled from the thought, not wanting to even allow his mind to drift toward acknowledging an attraction to the daughter of his sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy. He needed a drink. Or two. Or six.

Instead he rolled up the sleeves of the denim shirt he wore, seeking a distraction. “Well, Holly, I figured you’d be out killing reverends or something.”

That brought a genuine chuckle from her. “I’m rethinking my approach. Stabbing him in broad daylight—that makes him a martyr. I can’t afford to do that.”

“So you’re here because…”

“That’s between my mother and me. So where do you suppose Audrey keeps her knives?” She paused for effect before adding, “Just kidding.”

Duke shook his head. He was off his game. “What angle are you playing?”

Holly sat on the arm of the loveseat, running her palms along her denim-clad thighs. “You care about her, don’t you?”

Duke said nothing, merely smiling like a Cheshire cat.

“You have to know that you don’t have a shot with her.”

“Is that so?” he questioned nonchalantly.

“Totally. She’s hung up on my dad. Even if she weren’t, it’s pretty much pointless.”

Duke ran a hand through his hair. He had a difficult time imagining Audrey being hung up on anyone, let alone Nathan. Nathan was—God, he was a stick in the mud. Not that he gave Nathan much thought. “You sound childish when you say things like that. Kind of ruins the illusion of you being hot.”

“Of course you think I’m hot, Duke,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

“Modest, too.”

“I look like her, and it’s obvious you’re attracted, so…”

Duke’s eyes narrowed as he moved closer to her. “How do you know my name?”

“You’d be surprised what I know.” Holly stood, reached out, and ran her hand along Duke’s forearm.

He cocked a brow. She was, by far, the touchiest person he’d ever seen--literally. She’d had her hands on everything in the room, and now her hands were on him. Not that he minded, exactly, but the whole situation went beyond unusual, even by Haven’s standards. “By all means, fill me in. You could start by explaining how this is possible. 

Holly ignored his question. “You’re warm,” she mused as her hand traced a path up his arm, along the worn denim of his shirt, and found a temporary resting place along the nape of his neck. “I remember you from when I was a kid.”

Duke retreated from her reach. “You’re still a kid.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” She turned slowly, completing a full 360 and looking at their surroundings. “This is strange.”

“No kidding.” He grimaced. “I’m talking in puns.”

“That _is_ disappointing,” she replied with a grin. “Smugglers shouldn’t talk in puns. Makes you seem less badass.”

Duke’s brows furrowed. “How do you…?”

“Any idea how long it’ll be before Audrey gets back? You must know her habits.”

“Habits? There’s no such thing. She and Nathan are probably out chasing jaywalkers or writing parking tickets or trying to figure out why William Netherton offed himself or something.” 

She perked up. “What can you tell me about him?”

“Netherton? Not much. He—”

“No. About my dad.”

“Nathan? Nothing you don’t already know. He’s a humorless, overbearing Dudley-Do- Right who…” Duke broke off his diatribe and explained, “Dudley Do-Right was this dim-witted cartoon character who always lucked into catching the bad guys. Okay, so Nathan’s not dim-witted, but he is annoying. Very, very annoying." 

Her expression softened. “You don’t like him.”

“It’s complicated. We go back. I’m sure since you know who I am, you’ve heard him say that I’m unreliable, untrustworthy, and a general pain in the ass.”

“I wish.”

“I’m hurt.”

“How far back do you go? Did you know him as a kid? Did he play sports? Have girlfriends? Ever get drunk? Did he—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is all this? You’re talking like you don’t know him.”

She shrugged. “I don’t.”

“But Nathan, he’d never leave his—” And then her meaning dawned on him. “Dammit.”

“The view is beautiful from here,” she hedged as she walked to the large window that overlooked the Atlantic. “Coastline is different. My mother brought me here once when I was eight. She showed me where I came from. She wanted to make an impression on me, and she did. Looks better around here without everything being crumbled into the sea.”

Duke’s mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton. “So you’re saying…”

She looked back at him over her shoulder. “There is no Grey Gull. No Good Shepherd Church. No police station. No bustling Main Street. No Haven.”

He scoffed. “Now you’re talking crazy.”

“You said you wanted to know,” she reminded him. 

“Why are you here, Holly?”

“Because she can’t be. She can’t do this, so it falls on me.”

“What falls on you?”

“To change it all.”

* * *

 

The software the Haven PD had recently purchased to complete police reports was one of the things that Audrey had to admit she liked about Nathan becoming the Chief of Police. It was way better than completing everything by hand or using an old-fashioned typewriter on triplicate paper. Some of the required fields stumped her from time to time, though. How much should she reveal? That was always a dilemma. There was the truth, which arguably should not be part of the public record in Haven, and then there was the cover-up, which a year ago she would never have advocated. Of course, it was about a year ago that she first came to Haven and saw that some things were better left unsaid.

Now, as she sat in the office she previously shared with Nathan and attempted to finish her report on the hostage situation and suicide of William Netherton, she was frustrated by the half-truths on the report. She couldn’t help but think that the situation could have ended far more peacefully if the Rev hadn’t obstructed their efforts. Not that it was entirely provable that he was purposely blocking them from getting to Netherton, but the look on Driscoll’s face said it all, as far as she was concerned.

But then there was the other niggling apprehension. What exactly did Holly have to do with what happened? Did she purposely cause Netherton to lose his grip on reality? And if she was at the church, why hadn’t she carried out what she previously said was her purpose for being there?

The door of her office swinging open unexpectedly had Audrey looking up. Edmund Driscoll stood in the doorway glaring at her. “I have it on good authority that the woman who tried to kill me was at the church today. Why aren’t you out looking for her?”

Audrey tapped her fingers on the desk before sarcastically responding, “Guess she must’ve disappeared to the same place those steeple chamber keys are.”

“One has nothing to do with the other.” The lines on the reverend’s forehead deepened as he frowned. He moved further into the office, balled his fists, and leaned onto her desk, his fists supporting his weight. _Classic tough guy mode_ , Audrey thought. It was almost amusing. _Almost_. The way she figured, the 9mm holstered to her hip was a far more formidable argument-settler than a middle-aged man’s bravado.

“Parker, I got a call from—” Nathan stopped short as he walked into Audrey’s office and saw her visitor. “Why are you here?” he pointedly asked the reverend.

Driscoll straightened and turned to look at Nathan. “As a concerned citizen, I am lodging a complaint with the Board of Selectmen.”

“For what?” Nathan asked crossing his arms.

“Police misconduct. An investigation will be launched, and unlike all the ones the two of you ‘investigate,’ the results of this one will be based on the truth.”

“Get out,” Nathan’s voice was dangerously low.

“I’ll be taking you along with me. Both of you,” the older man threatened.

“My conscience is clean. Can you say the same?” Nathan asked the rev.

“There’s nothing clean about you. Spawn of that murderer, that’s what you are. He was swallowed up for his sins, taken to hell. That’s where you’ll be if you don’t repent, if you don’t stop elevating the cursed above the righteous." 

“A man _died_ today,” Audrey interjected. “It had nothing to do with righteousness. His death is on _you_.”

Driscoll’s face grew red and his jaw shook with emotion before he spat out, “William Netherton was one of my oldest and closest friends! He saw clearly what most are too blind to see. He sacrificed himself so that others would gain sight.”

“And you’re going to show them the way,” Nathan responded incredulously.

“It’s what I’m called to do.”

Audrey shook her head. “Rev, a lot of people are going to get hurt if you don’t stop and think about what you’re doing. William didn’t have to die. If you had let us do our jobs--”

“Your jobs?” the Rev practically snarled. “People are already getting hurt, casualties of a war. William accepted his role in this, welcomed it even.” 

Audrey’s eyes glanced toward her computer screen; the digital images taken at the scene of the hostage crisis had already been attached to the incident report. The grotesque contortion of Netherton’s body, the blood loss, the stains on the white clapboard meeting house—they were all there. But truly, she didn’t need the digital reminders. Audrey could just close her eyes and still see it in her mind’s eye. “He spoke of Lucy.”

“Yes, I heard him.”

“You weren’t surprised,” Audrey stated flatly. “You knew Lucy.”

“Many people around these parts knew Lucy.” Driscoll looked at her as though his response was the epitome of the obvious.

Audrey tilted her head, looking at the reverend appraisingly. “Yet when I showed up, you invited me to Sunday dinner like I was a stranger.”

“You were a stranger. I was willing to welcome another member to the flock. But you chose him and his kind.” He cast his eyes in the direction of Nathan.

“And I would choose him again,” Audrey replied matter-of-factly.

Driscoll shook his head in disgust. “You’ve run out of chances. Things are about to get ugly around here. You protect the cursed at the expense of the righteous. You look the other way while your spawn tries to kill me.”

“What did you say?” Nathan asked taking a step forward.

Driscoll’s eyes narrowed. “You heard me. Don’t think I don’t know what she is.”

* * *

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on just a minute.” Duke raised his hands to signal Holly to stop. “Run that by me again. You’re planning to change the past?”

Holly scowled at Duke. “Have you been following this conversation at all? Why else do you think I want to rid the world of Driscoll now?”

“What does he have to do with anything?”

Holly pursed her lips and looked away.

“Talk to me,” Duke cajoled, reaching out and touching her forearm.

“I _need_ to talk to _her_. If I can,” she added glumly. 

“In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not here right now. I am.”

Holly looked up at Duke, locking onto his eyes. “Even if she were, I don’t know how long I….” She stopped and took a deep breath. “Why should I trust you?”

“Look, I know I don’t have the greatest track record, but let me ask you this. Does Audrey trust me, in your time, I mean?”

“Really? Trying to find out if you’re still alive?” Holly scolded.

“I’m trying to convince you to trust me,” Duke shot back. “Tell me what’s going on, Holly. Please.”

“How much do you know about the Troubles?” Holly asked.

“As much as the next person. They can strike without warning. Oh, and they suck.”

“They sure do.” Holly reached down and took Duke’s hand, raising it and running her own hand against it, sliding her fingers up and down between his. Her teeth caught her lower lip as she lifted her gaze to his eyes again.

“You’re making it difficult to concentrate,” Duke gently admonished her.

Holly nodded, released his hand and took a step back. “Better?”

“Yes. And no." 

“I hope you can forgive my experimentation. This is all new to me.”

“What is?”

But she didn’t answer him directly, instead jumping into a different explanation. “The Troubles have been around for a long time, and each time they’ve emerged in Haven, so has a woman. She’s had different names. Sarah. Madeleine. Lucy.”

“Audrey,” Duke supplied, his tone grave.

“To name a few. And as each cycle has run its course and the Troubles have disappeared, so has the woman.”

“So you’re trying to keep Audrey from disappearing?” Duke’s tone was hopeful, making Holly feel strangely guilty.

“No. Not exactly. Actually, I’m pretty sure that if everything rights itself, there will be no more Trouble cycles and no more Audrey Parker.”

* * *

 

“How could he know?” Audrey asked after Nathan closed the door to her office. The Rev had stormed out almost immediately after making his pronouncement.

Nathan mechanically rubbed his chin. “I’ve not said anything to anyone.”

Audrey exhaled loudly through her nose before supplying, “I off-handedly mentioned it to Duke this morning, but he was there when she first showed up, so that wasn’t new information to him. I don’t think…" 

“I don’t either. The test results?”

“I left it here on my desk.” She rustled through her paper tray. “It’s not here.”

“You sure that’s where you left it?”

She shot him a look of alarm mingled with annoyance.

“Okay. So someone here is acting as Driscoll’s eyes and ears.”

“This really sucks,” Audrey replied with a sigh. “But what can he do with this information? I mean, who’s going to believe that you and I have a twenty year old daughter when we’ve only known each other for, what, a year?”

Nathan sat on the edge of her desk, pensive. “He said it himself. The Rev is mounting an attack. This is bigger than him knowing Holly is…ours. He’s going to split this town in two, and what happened at the Good Shepherd today is going to seem like a picnic.”

“And suddenly Holly’s ideas don’t seem so crazy after all,” Audrey muttered.

Nathan’s jaw clenched. “The Rev, I can deal with. Same song. Same dance. What pisses me off is we don’t know who we can trust, even here.”

“I know who I can trust,” she replied, reaching out and resting her hand atop his. She watched as Nathan’s expression softened.

“Same here,” he managed. He squeezed his eyes, as though suddenly remembering something. “What I came in here to tell you was I got a call from Marion Brower. Not an emergency, but she sounded worried. Wants us to meet her at Brand Pier." 

Audrey nodded and withdrew her hand. “I was actually thinking of her a few minutes ago.” She stood and picked up her jacket from the clothes hook on the wall. “Let’s go see what she needs.” She glanced back at the computer screen. “God knows I could use a change of scenery.”

* * *

“Chief Wuornos! Officer Parker! What a nice surprise!” Marion Brower spoke loudly and clearly, Audrey assumed, for the benefit of anyone who might see the three of them talking. It was evident she didn’t want people to know she had arranged the meeting.

“It’s good to see you, Marion. How have you been?” Audrey asked conversationally.

Marion looked down at the bundled infant she cradled in her arms. “You know, things have been a little busy lately.”

“I can imagine,” Nathan replied, smiling when he saw the shock of red hair poking out from under her tiny, woven cap. “Conrad must be proud.”

Marion smiled. “Oh, he is. He is. And tired. Before Sheldyn arrived, he spent I don’t even know how many hours building her a cradle, a crib, a chest of drawers, you name it. And now that she’s here, neither of us is getting much sleep at night.”

Audrey studied the baby. She had to admit that Sheldyn was pretty cute, if you liked pudgy, cherubic creatures that smiled while drooling.

Marion noticed Audrey looking at the baby and asked, “Would you like to hold her?”

Panic ran through the blond woman, and she chuckled nervously. “I’m not that great with babies. Wouldn’t want to traumatize her.”

Nathan shot a look at Audrey, as though to say, _‘Lame excuse_.’ In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long ago when Audrey had tenderly held Duke’s daughter, Jean, and taken pictures of the baby, wanting to give Jean something Audrey never had: a picture of her first day of life and the knowledge that someone cared enough to record that day for posterity. He couldn’t help but think that Holly showing up two days ago was the impetus for Audrey’s skittishness.

“May I?” Nathan asked Marion.

“Of course. You’re lucky to catch her when she’s awake. She seems to like to sleep during the day and stay awake at night.” Marion carefully passed her infant into Nathan’s waiting arms.

“Hello, Sheldyn. You are such a pretty girl. Yes, you are. Yes, you are.”

Audrey observed the transformation that came over Nathan’s features. Gone was the wariness he so frequently wore. The cooing, grinning man replaced her typically cool and expressionless (for those who didn’t know him better) partner. She’d seen it before with Beatrice Mitchell’s babies, including Jean. Back then, Audrey had been taken off guard by Nathan’s reaction to babies, perhaps even mildly appalled, though that was more a testament to the fact that she thought she had Nathan Wuornos pegged and he had surprised her.

Now as she watched Nathan with this baby, she viewed him completely differently. Nathan wasn’t the cold, unfeeling man she had initially gauged him to be. Sure, he was still sarcastic, but as a fellow smartass, she found that to be an endearing quality. No, Nathan felt more deeply than anyone she’d ever known, the irony of which was not lost on her. Something inside her melted. Why hadn’t some woman snatched him up?

“He needs to be a dad,” Marion commented to Audrey, who nearly choked on air.

“Right.” Audrey replied noncommittally. Glancing around them, she made sure there was no one around before she asked Marion, “So why the cloak and dagger bit?”

Marion hesitated before finally speaking, “No one knows about my... No one but the two of you and Conrad, of course. Other people aren’t so understanding. Sometimes when people come into the store, I hear the way they talk about the Troubles. It’s getting worse.”

“I know,” Audrey admitted.

“I hear other things, too.”

“What have you heard?” Nathan asked in a sing-song baby-talk voice that had Audrey grimacing in light of the serious turn of the conversation.

“All afternoon, everyone’s been talking about Mr. Netherton. People are really scared by what happened to him. They’re saying it wasn’t suicide, that it was murder, and the Haven PD are covering it up to protect the Troubled. They’re saying it’s become open season on those who are normal and it’s time to turn the tables.”

“We were there, Marion. It was suicide,” Audrey assured her, though she couldn’t entirely deny that some element of the Troubles precipitated his demise. Did her own daughter somehow shoulder part of the blame?

“There’s a meeting tomorrow night out at Tuwiuok Bluff. Reverend Driscoll is leading it, and I’m afraid he is going to work everyone into such a frenzy…” her voice trailed off.

“I’m worried about what’s coming around the bend for Conrad and myself but mostly for Sheldyn. When people get scared around here, bad things start to happen.”

“Thanks for letting us know, Marion,” Nathan replied, his tone normal. “We’ll dig around.”

“Be careful. This place isn’t friendly to those who are different anymore. Pretty soon, it won’t be a haven for _anyone._ ” A strong wind blew off the water and seemed to circle around the three adults and newborn.

Audrey reached out, took Sheldyn from Nathan’s arms, and passed her back to Marion. “It’s going to be okay, Marion.” As if on cue, the winds stilled.

* * *

 

Nathan turned on the heat in the old Bronco when he looked across the bench seat and saw Audrey shiver. Her gaze was fixed on some far point on the horizon as the last vestiges of light gave way to twilight settling on the sea. “You ever feel like we’re fighting symptoms but not the cause?” Audrey murmured.

“All the time.”

“Any ideas?”

“We can’t bust up an assembly when we have no evidence illegal activity is taking place.”

She glanced across at him. “But we also can’t let Driscoll get even more of a foothold. You heard what Holly said.”

“So you believe her now?” Nathan asked with surprise.

“Let’s just say I’m starting to see her point.” Audrey fell silent for a moment before commenting, “It’s a little ironic for them to hold their meeting at Tuwiuok Bluff, don’t you think?”

“Haven for God’s Orphans. Makes me wonder how long Haven has been a refuge for the Troubled.”

“And how much longer it will be.” She leaned back against the headrest and shut her eyes.

“So what was that back there with Marion and the baby?”

Her eyes flew open. “What do you mean?”

“Thought you were going to take off when she asked if you wanted to hold Sheldyn.”

“Look, not all of us are naturals with babies. Some of us have the parenting prowess of a Pekin duck.”

“That was random.”

“Everyone knows they are notoriously bad parents,” she replied with nonchalance.

“Sure. Common knowledge,” he replied dryly. “But Marion wasn’t asking you to parent Sheldyn. Just if you wanted to hold her.”

Audrey cleared her throat. “Going back to Driscoll…”

“Not quite yet,” Nathan insisted. “I know why you’re scared.”

“I’m not—" 

“Audrey. You told me earlier that you believe in free will, not fate. You get to decide what does and doesn’t happen to you. And I meant it earlier. I don’t expect us to fall into a relationship or…or have a baby." 

“I kissed you earlier today.”

“I remember.”

“And you asked me out.”

“I remember that, too.”

“The thought of being with you doesn’t scare me, Nathan. It’s the thought of being without you that terrifies me. And I can’t help but wonder if what happens to you in Holly’s world is somehow my fault.”

“Free will, Audrey,” Nathan repeated.

She reached across the truck for him, her left hand finding the stubble of his cheek. He leaned into her touch, and she found herself scooting closer to him. Tracing his lips with her fingers, she cupped his face, eager to taste his kiss. “I choose you,” she murmured softly.


	6. The Pivot Point

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Feel free to say hi! :)

**Part Six: The Pivot Point**

“Run that by me again. You’re saying Audrey has to die?” Duke nearly choked on the words. He wasn’t sure whether to laugh at Holly or start climbing the walls. He waited for her to crack a smile, anything to hint at levity, that this was all one huge practical joke or…something.

Instead, she somberly replied, “There’s no other choice that I can see.”

“You want to kill your own mom? I’ve heard of a dysfunctional families. Hell, I come from a dysfunctional family, but this…”

Holly’s patience wore thin. “Oh, get off it. I don’t _want_ to kill her.”

Duke held up his hand, his fingers splayed in a gesture that silently screamed ‘ _hold on’_. “But you just said…”

“We have our differences, but she’s my mom, and I do love her.”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it.” But as he stopped and let her words sink in, he could hear the turmoil in the young woman’s slightly quivering voice.

“I’m thinking of the greater good.”

“I hate that phrase,” Duke muttered. “Translation from the original martyr dialect: ‘I get to be miserable’.”

“Well, it sucks, I know, but tell me how to fix this without Audrey Parker dying and my never being born, and I’ll be game for it.”

Her eyes beseeched him. Blue. The color of cornflowers. Expressive. _Haunted._

She wasn’t going to come out the other side of this either.

And he felt his center of gravity lurch. He plopped on Audrey’s small sofa to try to cover his own unsteadiness. “You look a lot like her.”

“I hear that a lot.”

“Audrey smiles more than you do.” To not see Audrey’s smile anymore? She was his friend, one of the few genuine friends he had. Duke didn’t want Audrey to die. Simple as that. For that matter, he didn’t want Holly to die, either. There was something there. Given time, he might call it a spark, but it would be an ember that he’d have to bury quickly.

How strange to hear Holly announce she would have to die and subsequently try to carry on a meaningful conversation.

She settled on the couch next to Duke drawing her long legs under her. “I never knew my mom to smile much. Not unless she was talking about my dad.”

Holly steered the conversation away from her own impending demise, Duke realized. But he would play along. It was the least he could do. “That one, I still don’t get.”

“I do,” Holly countered. “Can’t you see that spark with them?”

“No.” _Yes_. But he didn’t particularly want to admit it. Especially not when her expression mirrored his own thinking so closely.

“I asked her once when she knew she loved him.”

“Oh?”

“She said it hit her when he asked her out for a lobster dinner.”

Duke furrowed his brows. “Nathan hates lobster.”

“Exactly, but he knew she liked it. My mom’s told me stories about him, and that’s when I could see the light come back into her eyes. Not when she was looking at me but when she was thinking about him. He was always putting her before himself. It accounts for why he’s dead and I’m alive, I suppose.”

Her wistfulness, her vulnerability, were such a contrast to the swaggering young woman he met on the sidewalk outside the Haven Police Department. “How could you have anything to do with that?”

Holly shook her head. “You know she’s not like other people, right?”

“I’ve figured that out.”

“Look, she gave up…she gave up her immortality to keep me. For the love of a child who would cause her to lose everything she ever held dear. My father died saving me, trying to save Haven, and it has all been for nothing.”

“Because you say that Haven is just…poof…destroyed.”

“You don’t believe me.”

Duke didn’t want to believe her. Not if it meant losing his friends, his home. Try as he had over the years to leave Haven behind, he had never succeeded. Not entirely. And he sure wasn’t willing to give up on it now. But this had to be one very elaborate practical joke or con or…something. _Surely_. “I’ve seen strange things, but you have to admit that even this is stretching it.”

Holly inhaled, steadying herself for what she had to say. “I need you to just hear me out, okay? I’m not sure that if Audrey shows up here, I’ll have time to explain before I have to go.”

“Go? Go where?”

She reached out and touched his forearm. Warmth. The feel of him was pleasant, new. _Get a grip_ , she scolded herself. _This isn’t about exploring the sense of touch._ “Okay, that part about listening, I meant it, Duke.”

As a response, Duke held his hand behind his ear to indicate he was listening.

“I asked you what you know about the Troubles. And trust me, there’s plenty you don’t know yet. Have you ever wondered why they seem to return in cycles?”

“Who from Haven hasn’t?”

She continued. “Do you believe one person can be a pivot point?”

“What? You mean everything hinges on that person?”

“Yes.”

“No. I believe we make our own choices,” Duke replied.

“I wish I could believe what you do,” Holly murmured. “Look, the woman you call Audrey is here each time the Troubles come. It’s been that way since the beginning.”

“So you’re saying Audrey is the cause of the Troubles?”

Holly shook her head. “Not quite. All around us is a battle. Maybe some would call it a spiritual battle. Others an elemental one. A lightning rod draws the Troubles out. Edmund Driscoll is that lightning rod this time.”

“So? The Troubles went away before. They’ll go away again. I’m not going to let Audrey die for…for this.”

He was a good friend to her mom. Holly could sense that when she was a small child, and she could see it now. How was she going to get Duke Crocker, of all people, to understand and to play his part? Could she ask that of him? “This time is different.” Holly grabbed a decorative pillow from the sofa and hugged it against herself. “This time Driscoll is going to destroy Haven.” A chill ran through her, enough that goose pimples formed on her skin.

Duke yanked at a throw he’d halfway sat on, pulling it out from under himself and spreading it atop Holly. “How is that even possible?”

“How am _I_ even possible?” Holly shot back. “When you look at me, what do you see?”

What was he supposed to see? A combination of Audrey and Nathan? A sexy woman? A nutjob? Holly Wuornos was starting to become very, very real to him as something more than an oddity of the Troubles. “Is this a trick question?”

“You are infuriating. You know that, right?” She spoke drolly before regaining her seriousness. “Audrey—for lack of a better name—is the counterpart to the energy that has poured itself into the Rev. Each time the Troubles come, she appears and provides balance. Light to dark. Good to evil.”

“Then why won’t you just let her do that? Let the Troubles go back to…wherever.”

“When she had me, the rules changed. I somehow anchored her, and now everything is off balance, which has enabled the Rev to gain a foothold.” She looked up at the ceiling. “You have no idea how bad it is.”

“But that hasn’t happened yet.”

“Time isn’t a straight line. It’s fluid.”

“I’ve heard of the past affecting the future, not the future affecting the past,” Duke countered.

“I know it seems impossible to believe and maybe even harder to understand, but I’m right about this. In the past, the two sides could just battle it out. It would be a stalemate, but the power has shifted and this is it, Duke. This is it.”

“So when you kill Driscoll, you’ll be killing Audrey…”

Holly pursed her lips before finally uttering, “Yes.”

“We need to find another way. I don’t want Audrey to die.” Duke studied the woman closely before adding, “Or you, Holly.”

The intensity of Duke’s stare made Holly avert her gaze. “I’ve had a long time to think about this—no pun intended. I just don’t see a way out of this. Neither did my mom.”

“So Audrey—future Audrey—is in on this?”

“Yes.”

“That’s just messed up…” his voice trailed off.

“The Audrey you know, wouldn’t she give up her life if she thought it would save the people she cares about, save this town?”

Duke swallowed hard. “And what about you?”

“What _about_ me?”  
  
“You’re willing to give your life for people you don’t know? A town you don’t know?” 

Frustration pored from her. “What choice do I have? This is hard. Especially now.”

“It wasn’t hard before?”

“It…” she paused. “No. Where I’m from, living the life I’d lived, definitely not. But being here, feeling…there’s this whole world that is so unlike everything I’ve known, and I want to explore it, but I can’t.”

“Why can’t you? While you have the chance, I mean.”

“Evidently, I have…a bad effect on people.”

“Let me tell you a secret,” he replied, moving closer to her so that he playfully patted her leg. “I’ve been told the same thing.”

“Really? By whom?”

“Nathan, for starters. But you don’t have a bad effect on me, Holly, and I don’t think I have a bad effect on you.”

“Wow,” she said flatly as she raised her eyebrows. “I understand so much more now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mom always said you had a way with women.”

“Women are so much more interesting than men. Case in point.”

Holly rolled her eyes.

“Tell me about yourself.”

She shook her head slightly. “What?”

“Not a trick question.”

“Technically, it wasn’t a question at all.”

“I want to know about you,” he asserted.

“It’s a moot point, Duke. Anything I tell you will never have happened if everything works as it should.”

“But you are here now. And you’re real. And if this is the last time I see you, I want to know _you_.”

* * *

Nathan had lost track of how many times he’d climbed the steps leading up to Audrey’s apartment perched atop the Grey Gull. Of course, none of those times had seemed quite like this. For so long, he had buried his feelings for her, told himself that they had no place in their partnership. And he was okay with that. Mostly. Having Audrey as his friend had been enough. 

But it wasn’t enough anymore.

Now as he stood outside Audrey’s apartment, waiting to go inside, he anticipated…everything: the physical act of sex, holding Audrey, feeling her and knowing she felt something for him, spending time with her, shutting out the world if only for a little while.

It had been years since his last time. He hoped it would be like a bicycle. Then again, if their earlier kiss at his house was any indication, he wasn’t going to have any trouble remembering how it all went.

He watched the petite blonde. Audrey. His Audrey. She was spunky, smart, sexy.

She was _nervous_?

Her keys clanged against each other as she pulled them from her pocket. Her hand shook a bit, and to the deck the keys went. At the moment she had the grace of a fish in a tree. He was glad he wasn’t the only one with jitters.

She half-laughed, half-groaned. “Sorry. I’m a little…”

“Me, too,” Nathan admitted. “We can slow this down. If you want. I’m not going anywhere.”

Audrey took one of his hands and pressed it against the crook of her neck before leaning into it. “Will you still respect me in the morning if I tell you that I don’t want to slow this down?”

_In the morning_.

Such promise in three words.

He could almost forget the last three days. The attempt on the rev’s life. A daughter he would never know. Tomorrow’s child. William Netherton’s self-inflicted death, helped along with a dose of the crazies from the aforementioned child. Audrey’s willingness to finally—finally—see him as more than a drinking buddy, more than a co-worker, more than a friend. It was undoubtedly the chaos that led her to reevaluate. Nonetheless, he was grateful. More than that, he was hopeful.

Holly said the rev had to be stopped. Nathan agreed. And while at that precise moment, he wasn’t sure what was going to happen, he could see the dark cloud around them lifting, the air rife with possibilities.

And it was because of Audrey. Things hadn’t been the same for him since he pulled the sarcastic, gun-wielding woman from her car perched on the edge of the bluff. And their relationship was about to change even more.

_In the morning_. Three beautiful words.

“I hope not,” he admitted with a smirk.

And then her lips were on his, and rational thought escaped him. Impulses, like forces of gravity pulling him in so many directions, surged through him. This was what living felt like. This was what love felt like.

* * *

If desperation were tangible, Audrey was certain she could reach out and grasp it, much the way her hands tangled with Nathan’s, her body with his.

This was insane. 

There were so many reasons to stop or to slow down. And all she could think of was _him_. Feeling Nathan. Touching Nathan. Being with Nathan. She felt like she had to remind herself to breathe around him. Or was it that she could barely catch her breath from their kisses?

It had been a slow burn between them, feelings buried and built in the depth of friendship. But now it seemed like everything was surging to the surface, erupting. Maybe it was the fear of borrowed time, the worry that Nathan wasn’t going to be around. Maybe it took life and death for her to finally see what had been staring at her all along.

As a general rule, she didn’t lose control like this. In the past, other lovers had accused her of being too unfeeling, too matter-of-fact, too detached. And it was true, the other times when she’d been with someone, there had been a degree of calculation and distance.  

This was hardly calculated. When she’d awoken that morning, it never crossed her mind that this would be the day that she would sleep with Nathan. Her best friend. Her former partner. It seemed silly to call him that when he was so much more.  

And now here she was, pushed against the clapboard wall of her apartment. They’d not even made it inside yet. She could feel the unevenness against her back where the boards overlapped, forming a barrier against the salty water and air. And those boards formed a barrier from what she wanted. Privacy with Nathan.

The intensity of her feelings startled her. She had no frame of reference for any of it. This was so much more than an itch to be scratched. She needed _him_. She wanted to melt into _him_. To see his lashes flutter as they had earlier when they had touched. She wanted to bring those parts of him that had long lay dormant back to life.

“Audrey…” Nathan said her name as a deep sigh.

“Mmm?” she replied against his mouth as she dug her fingers into the muscles of his back.

He pulled away slightly to meet her eyes. “I want you to know…this isn’t casual for me.”

Ever the gentleman.

It made her crave him all the more. She mattered to him, which she already knew. Nonetheless, it was nice to be reminded.

“Me either,” she assured him. “But maybe we can have this conversation later?”

“You dropped your keys,” he reminded her with a lop-sided smile.

“You distracted me.” She ran her hands down his back and pulled them from under his shirt, eliciting a groan of disappointment from him.

He knelt, retrieved the keys from the deck, and pressed them into the palm of her hand.

She wasn’t sure how she managed to unlock the door of her apartment. No matter how certain she was, the anticipation had her hands quivering.

As soon as they were inside, his arms crept around her waist, finding their way under the Henley she wore, snaking their way from her stomach upward. He pulled her back against him and buried his nose in her hair, breathing her scent.

“Not in front of impressionable eyes,” Duke chastised from the sofa upon seeing them enter. He turned to his companion. “Is there anything grosser than seeing your parents make out?”

Audrey froze. A blonde head and a dark head. On the couch. Close. So close. Under a freaking blanket.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nathan muttered letting go of Audrey.

But fear gripped Audrey. “Duke, you need to get away from her.”

“Relax, Audrey, Nathan.” Duke replied soothingly. “I didn’t put the moves on your…daughter. There’s more going on. Things you need to know.”

“You’re making people sick,” Audrey said pointedly to Holly, ignoring Duke.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say, all things considered,” Duke deflected.

“No, I mean it, Holly. Sam Barthelemey. William Netherton.”

“I know,” the other woman admitted as she pushed the blanket aside. “I figured it out. After the fact,” she added.

To Holly’s credit, Audrey thought she detected concern in her daughter’s ( _how weird!_ ) voice.

“I’m fine,” Duke supplied. “No crazier than usual.”

“Holly, you have to stay away,” Nathan warned. “Innocent people are getting caught in the crosshairs. A woman almost died today at William Netherton’s hands. Netherton himself did die.”

“I can’t stay away,” she shook her head and moved toward Audrey and Nathan. “Not yet. Bad things are coming. Fast and soon. Driscoll has to be stopped. Surely you can see that.”

“Listen, we agree that Driscoll is dangerous,” Audrey said soothingly. “But all you’re doing is giving him ammunition. Nathan and I will handle this. Trust us.”

“There’s more to this. So much more. That’s why I’m here.” Holly looked at Nathan. “But first, I need you to know I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Nathan asked.

“I wish I could’ve known you.” Moisture dripped from her nose. She lifted her hand and brought away red. “Not yet. How can there not be enough time? Dammit!”

“Nathan’s not going anywhere,” Audrey replied insistently as she reached for a box of tissues from a nearby table.

Holly looked back to Duke. “Tell them.”

Duke grimaced as he rushed to Holly’s side. “Fight this. Try to stay.”

“Tell them,” Holly insisted, holding fast to her own message. Her form began to fade. “Please Duke.”

“I will,” he promised.

Her lips formed thank you, but no sound came out. And where Holly Wuornos had stood was nothingness.

“The nosebleed again,” Audrey murmured, trying to assimilate what Holly said, as well as her daughter’s literal disappearing act.

“Being around you makes her sick,” Duke bluntly explained.

“Nice. See,” Audrey turned to Nathan. “You would be the favorite parent.” She looked back to Duke. “Is she okay?”

“She will be when she has distance.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the other man. “What were you doing here with her?”

“She was…entering the apartment without permission…”

“You mean breaking in,” Nathan supplied. “So naturally you decided to break in with her.”

Duke grinned. “How it must irk you, being the law-abiding stick-in-the-mud that you are, that your daughter doesn’t seem to have your rigid code of conduct.”

“Why was she here?” Audrey asked.

All the lightness of the moment suddenly seemed to dissipate from Duke. “About that. We’ve got trouble.”


	7. Missing the Signs

**Part Seven: “Missing the Signs”**

“Duke, you son of a bitch!” Nathan balled Duke’s denim overshirt in his fists, forcefully pushing the other man against the wall. A framed picture fell. Glass shards littered the wood floor.

“Stop it right now!” Audrey tugged at Nathan’s arm, grateful that Duke had not escalated the situation by retaliating.

She had seen the two men angry with each other countless times—even seen them come to blows a few of those times—but the pained expressions on both their faces now only made the reality of the situation clearer. In twenty-four hours’ time, she wouldn’t be there.

She had always come back before. Not again. _Never again_.

Thoughts flitted through her mind. How strange to know her end in finite terms. How bizarre to finally have answers, only to wish the questions had never been asked. 

And then there were the questions she still clung to. 

Had she ever been aware of the Troubles ending before?

Had she ever been in love before?

She couldn’t imagine that she had. Certainly not like this.

_Nathan._

Audrey felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She wouldn’t be around to deal with the fallout. But Nathan—what would happen to him? He wasn’t like other men she had known. In the shadow of his stoniness ran an undercurrent of emotion that he rarely let anyone except her—and maybe Duke—see.

From the beginning of her time in Haven, her friendship with Nathan came easily. It was an easy rapport. They challenged each other, brought out the best in each other as partners and as people. And over time, that friendship ran deep. It was the only thing that had sustained them both when things were at their darkest—or had seemed that way. But now that they had finally allowed themselves to acknowledge something more between them, their situation seemed the ultimate in cruel.

Life had been brutal to Nathan. Simple as that. And it was about to be crueler.

Audrey could feel the tension in Nathan’s body, even as he released Duke and backed away from the other man. He had let go for her sake, but she knew he still wanted to tear into Duke.

“Look, I don’t want to lose her either,” Duke replied, trying to keep his voice even as he straightened his rumpled shirt.

“I’m not going to let it happen.” Gone was Nathan’s typical matter-of-fact tone. He sounded fierce, almost like a wounded animal.

Audrey ran her hand down Nathan’s arm. She took his hand, squeezing it. “For all the questions I’ve had about myself, this is the first thing that makes sense. We wanted to know why Holly was here. Now we know.”

He pulled away from her. “Parker, you can’t seriously be considering this!”

“I have to,” she replied simply.

Nathan pointed at Duke. “And you—what game are you playing?”

“You really believe I’m lying about this? I wouldn’t, Nathan. Okay? I believe what Holly said. Audrey…future Audrey believes it, too. That’s why Holly is…was….here.”

“She’s sick! The nosebleeds. You saw her yourself. And she makes people sick. Maybe she’s making herself sick, too.” Even as he spoke, the words rang hollow. Nathan was grasping for _anything_.

“I have a theory about the nosebleeds,” Duke began.

Nathan rolled his eyes. “Right. Because spending half an hour with her makes you an expert.”

Duke glared at Nathan. Holly was the one lost in all of this. It was so damn unfair that her whole life—all her experiences—would be snuffed out. And Duke would be the only one to have known her. _Sanctimonious ass Nathan_. Of course he felt no connection to her. He’d never spent more than five minutes with her, his own daughter. “It was closer to an hour, but yeah, I’d say it makes me more of an expert on her than you are.” And that wasn’t long enough. Holly intrigued him, but there was to be nothing between them.

“Stop,” Audrey said sharply. “Both of you.”

Duke turned to Audrey. “Whatever it is that makes you different, she has. I think you repel each other. She can’t be around you. Present you anyway. Not for long.”

“Parker—”

“It makes sense, Nathan. In a strange way all of it does. Why I keep coming back. Why the Troubles come with me. Why Driscoll has managed to influence so many people.” She looked to Duke. “How long do we have?”

“Holly said tomorrow’s the turning point. The beginning of the end of Haven.”

Audrey turned to Nathan. “The meeting on Tuwiuok Bluff.”

“A coincidence,” Nathan quickly replied turning away from Audrey and shoving his hands in his pockets.

Audrey squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before opening them again.

“You going to be okay?” Duke asked. Almost as soon as the words fell from his lips, he grimaced.

Audrey, on the other hand, chuckled. It struck her that the reaction was wholly inappropriate and odd. Story of her life. But it was either laugh or cry. She muttered something indecipherable before asking, “Was Holly okay?”

“She was spouting off about the greater good with a straight face.”

“Not bad for a snarky little...”

“Hey now,” Duke warned. “I think you would’ve been proud of her.”

“I wish I could’ve known her,” Audrey admitted wistfully.

“Me, too.” He looked over Audrey’s shoulder and saw Nathan, still with his back to them, perfectly motionless.

“I should go. Let you two have some time to…yeah.”

“Thanks.”

Duke hesitated before pulling Audrey into a hug. “If you need anything, _anything_ , you know where to find me.”

“I know. You’ve been a good friend.”

“You too,” he whispered against her ear.

She pulled away from his embrace and walked him to the door. Once Duke was gone, she looked back to the silent figure. A lump formed in her throat as she went to get a broom and dustpan for the broken glass.

As she swept the shards, she wished that the remnants of her life would be as easy to sweep away. Tidy. No remaining signs of destruction. Looking at Nathan, she knew that was impossible.

Why had they let themselves go there? Knowing what little they did about Lucy, about Sarah, about Madeleine…what were they thinking? Were they really so arrogant to think that this could end any other way?

“You going to talk to me?” Audrey asked as she dumped the glass in the trashcan.

“Sorry about your picture.”

“I don’t care about the picture.”

Nathan was silent.

“What do you want from me?”

“What do I want?” Nathan spat back. “For starters, I want you to stop acting like what Duke said is true or inevitable.”

“He has no reason to lie. Neither does Holly.”

Nathan shook his head. “Did she think she was doing us a favor by passing this message along?”

Audrey considered his question. “Is it better to know something important but painful or to be oblivious? I suppose people have been weighing that for a long time. Think of how many people could have clued me in about my past but chose not to. Vince. Dave. Your dad. Most anyone who’s lived in Haven for more than three decades…” Audrey stood next to Nathan, staring out at the darkness. “But Holly didn’t do this to be cruel. If she fails, I have to do it. I have to kill Driscoll before he destroys everything. Finally end this cycle.”

“There’s got to be another way.”

“I won’t live at the expense of this town. Or at the expense of you,” she added softly.

“I’m here. I’m not the one going anywhere.”   
  
“You think Duke’s right. That what Holly said is the truth.”

Nathan deflected. “We can talk to the Rev. Convince him.”

“You’ve known him a lot of years. Since when have you ever known him to be reasonable?”

“I’m not going to let you die. If I have to stand guard around Driscoll myself, I will.”

“Nathan…”

“I love you, Audrey. Have for a long time. I’m not letting you go.”

No one had ever told her those words. At least, not in this lifetime. Coming from his lips, the words sounded so beautiful. But she couldn’t afford to dwell on the beauty of them or how his intense gaze made her feel so incredibly alive. “How many people have died since I showed up this time? How many people have died all the previous times? The Troubles have to end.”

“It’s not worth it.”

“Yes, it is. If you step back and stop fighting me on this, you’ll see. Things will finally get back to normal. Good people like Marion won’t have to look over their shoulders anymore. And you—you’ll be able to feel again. Have a normal life.” She swallowed hard, steadying herself. “And I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but you will meet someone to build a life with, a family. I want that for you, Nathan.”

“I want _you,_ Audrey. I don’t—I don’t care about whether I can feel again. If I can’t feel _you_ , what does it matter?”

She took a deep breath, trying to find the strength to utter what needed to be said. “You need to let it go. Let _me_ go and move on. I shouldn’t mean this much to you. Not when…not when I _don’t_ love you.” She spoke dispassionately.

His gaze met hers. The set of her jaw was steely. He would almost have believed her if he didn’t know her so well. “Doesn’t work like that. Besides, I know what you’re doing.”

“Look, we blurred some lines. I’m attracted to you. You can feel me, and that’s alluring. I understand. But that’s it.”

Despite the weight bearing down on them both, he managed a half-smile. “Liar.”

And with that, his hands encircled her waist and pulled her to him. His lips descended on hers, nipping her, tasting her. He didn’t ask for permission, he didn’t give her the opportunity to pull away. He was strong, insistent. And as her body gave way to his, melding against him, Audrey decided she wouldn’t have it any other way.

* * *

Sometime later, the two lovers lay in bed, tired but not sleeping, their bodies still entangled.

“What are you thinking?” he murmured.

Audrey didn’t answer him right away. Finally, she replied, “One night isn’t enough. And it’s too much.”

“Do you wish we hadn’t made love?”

“I wish we’d done it a long time ago,” Audrey admitted as she nestled against him more closely. “But at the same time, this really isn’t fair to you.”

“If we had a million nights, it wouldn’t be enough.”

Her heart clenched at the thought of those nights they’d never have and the time they had wasted. “You were right when you called me a liar. I don’t feel easily. I have no frame of reference or patience, really, for the heavy emotional stuff. But I love you, too. I just—I need you to promise me a few things.”

“We can negotiate.”

“Fine. Make up with Duke. Whatever falling out you two had, let it go.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Just do it.”

He stroked her hair. “What else?”

“Don’t shut yourself off from the world. You aren’t allowed to listen to Patsy Cline and drink Jack Daniels every night.”

“You’re the one leaving me. You don’t get to dictate how I deal with it.”

“Let me pretend that I do,” she murmured.

* * *

Moonlight reflected off the white clapboard siding of the Good Shepherd Church, illuminating the building in a bluish tint, all but where blood stained the painted wood. Audrey still remembered the first time she had climbed those wide steps into the building—to question Edmund Driscoll about a giant metal ball that had plummeted into the Rust Bucket. Driscoll had seemed so innocuous back then. Judgmental, perhaps, but no more so than the nuns from the orphanage that she grew up with, or at least the real Audrey Parker had grown up with.

Had she really been that naïve when she first arrived in Haven she couldn’t see the signs of danger in the reverend? The fanaticism was evident in the sermon she witnessed at the baptism of a child she didn’t even know. But those were just words. What did words mean, she reasoned back then.

Fast-forward a year, she knew what they meant. People were willing to turn on their neighbors at Driscoll’s word. The Troubled lived in fear of discovery, and the seeds that Driscoll had been planting all along were finally about to bear fruit.

“It’s late to be out here alone.”

The harsh voice and accompanying footsteps behind Audrey had her instinctively feeling for her holstered weapon. “Rev,” she responded to the black-cloaked man.

“I don’t see Nathan anywhere. Or your unnatural spawn, for that matter.”

Audrey felt a flash of pained guilt. Nathan had finally fallen asleep, though she knew he had fought it. The advantage of sharing a bed with a man who couldn’t feel anything was that once she managed to extricate herself from his arms, he didn’t feel the shift in the bed when she rose and began to dress. Nor did he feel the slight shake in the floor as she walked back to the bed to leave him a brief note. 

“It began with us. It will end with us.”

“I see you’ve been busy putting the pieces together,” Driscoll replied. “I think we have a few things to discuss.”

“No. We don’t,” Audrey replied, withdrawing her gun from its holster.


	8. Collateral Damages

**Part Eight: “Collateral Damages”**

A streak of lightning pierced the night sky, followed closely by the clap and boom of thunder. The air itself seemed to rattle. The abruptness with which the storm developed seemingly from nowhere made Audrey hesitate.

“That doesn’t seem natural, does it?” Driscoll commented, his voice calm and unconcerned.

The undercurrent of glee in his expression made Audrey’s heart race. No, it wasn’t natural, and he knew. “What did you do?”

“Why would you assume I’m the one? Not when the friend you saw earlier in the day has a history of being unable to keep a handle on her stormy emotions.”

“What’s happened to Marion?” Audrey demanded.

“What do you think?”

It was a game of chess, Audrey realized. A strategy he was employing. “When we end the Troubles, the storm will end.”

“This storm’s only just beginning. The Troubled have endangered the lives of everyone in this town, and you don’t see it.”

“Then you should be more than willing for us to end the Troubles, once and for all.” She aimed her revolver at him.

“If you kill this vessel, my men will seek out all the Troubled. Eradicate their lines. And they’ll start with Marion’s child. So Officer Parker, it seems you have a choice. You can destroy us, or you can try to help the damned. You can’t do both.”

“This isn’t over.”

“No, it’s growing. A revolution has begun, Audrey. It’s to be different this time.”

“I will escort you to hell myself if I have to.” With that, Audrey placed her gun back in its holster and hurried to her car.

* * *

 

A loud clap of thunder startled Nathan from his sleep. Instinctively, he reached out in the darkness to feel Audrey but found nothing. Another bolt of lightning showed the lamp next to the bed, which he quickly turned on as thunder rumbled again. 

“Audrey?” he called out.

No answer.

Panic set in. She couldn’t be gone. Not already! Why had he let himself fall asleep? He had so few moments left with her. Now they were wasted.

Tears stung his eyes, but through the bleariness, he noticed it. Plain paper with Audrey’s handwriting.

Quickly surveying the note, he hoped he wasn’t too late. He reached for his phone, hit the speed dial, and waited the most agonizing five seconds of his life.

“Nathan, you need to get to Marion and Conrad’s.” No hello. No. ‘I’m sorry for leaving in the middle of the night on a suicide mission’. But she was still alive, and that was all that mattered.

The storm. Of course.

Audrey had a way of settling the Troubles, but what happened to set off Marion?

“On my way.”

* * *

 

The wind whipped around the Cape Cod style home that Marion and Conrad Brower shared. Debris flew through the air, and dirt pricked Audrey’s eyes. Nevertheless, going against the wind and with her weapon drawn, she entered the open front door.

The interior was dark, save for the eerie lighting the storm provided. The back door was open, and it looked almost as though the storm had been inside the house, as well as outside. Pictures hung crooked on the wall, a vase of flowers was overturned. But she saw no one else in the house—at least yet—though baby Sheldyn’s plaintive squalling was quite audible.

Audrey followed the sound of the baby’s cries to her room. She fought back bile when she nearly tripped over Marion’s outstretched body on the floor. Conrad was a few feet away, face down. Both had been shot in their heads.

Audrey squatted and checked for pulses, biting back the urge to vomit, as much from the surge of emotions welling within her as the grotesque sight. Nothing. This was her fault. Marion’s warning to Nathan and her had made this family a target.

“Sheldyn, it’s going to be okay,” Audrey tried to sound soothing as she approached the crib.

_No. It’s not going to be okay!_ Her mind screamed. It’s never going to be okay. Not for Sheldyn, not for anyone, as long as Driscoll’s influence was felt.

_The storm._

With Marion dead, it had to be the baby. How was she supposed to pacify a Troubled baby?

Audrey returned her gun to her holster, scooped up the baby, and held her close. “I’m sorry, Sheldyn. I pray that you don’t remember this day, but I swear to you, I will find the people responsible for this, starting with Driscoll.”

“Parker?” Nathan stood in the doorway, his eyes wide and his hair windswept.

“They’re dead. Because of Driscoll…because of me.” 

* * *

Police officers combed the premises, collecting evidence, but Nathan’s attention kept diverting to Audrey. She leaned against the side of the Bronco, as she had done so often before. Over time, they had developed something of a tolerance for the horrors they encountered in the line of duty and could almost disconnect themselves from it. But this was different. Nathan recognized the look on her face. Haunted. 

Nathan glanced back at Stan. The affable officer, who had a natural affinity with children and furry creatures alike held Sheldyn, who was finally sleeping in his arms. The storm had subsided, at least momentarily. But what was going to happen when she awoke expecting to see her mom? The damage to the home was evident. The long-term damage done to the baby remained to be seen. And how could they reason with a Troubled infant?

He wondered if Audrey’s thoughts mirrored his own.

_What next?_

“We’re wasting our time here,” Audrey told Nathan as he walked by. “We need to be going after Driscoll.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near the bastard,” Nathan bluntly stated.

“No,” she replied shaking her head. “More than ever, I need to find him. This has to end. Marion—she was a good person. Conrad, too. This just isn’t how it should be.”

“Chief,” Officer Sanders approached Audrey and Nathan. Sanders reminded Audrey of a younger Ray Liota. “We didn’t find the weapon. Looks like Mrs. Brower went first. The husband struggled. Was put down execution style. Probably saw the whole thing unfold.”

“We’ll get ballistics to run the bullets,” Nathan replied, almost mechanically.

The younger officer hesitated.

“Anything else, Patrick?” Nathan asked seeing the hesitancy.

“It’s just that—we’ve got to get these monsters, Chief. No one should have to watch the one they love die.”

“No,” Nathan replied looking over at Audrey, “they shouldn’t.”

With that, Sanders went about his business, leaving the former partners alone in the crowd.

“He’s right, Nathan. We’ve got to go after Driscoll and his followers.”

Nathan pushed her hips against the Bronco, pinning her there with his hands and his own body. To anyone watching, it would have looked incredibly intimate and inappropriate given the setting. But with the desperation building within him, Nathan had no interest in keeping appearances. He leaned down and whispered harshly into her ear. “So _you_ can kill him? No. We do this by the book. Show him as the monster he is and people won’t listen to him.”

She looked up at him defiantly. “You’re outnumbered. If you spend all your time babysitting me, how are you going to stop Holly?”

“If I have to handcuff you to myself, I will.”

“There are bigger things at issue than me.”

“You think I don’t know that? Conrad and Marion were my friends, too, Parker! We don’t know whether Sheldyn is going to tear this town apart every time she cries or has a temper tantrum. We have a daughter from the future who keeps stirring up trouble. I get that there are bigger issues. But you left me a fucking note, Audrey. You were going to basically _off_ yourself, and the only word you left was a note.”

“And would you have been willing to let me go?” Audrey challenged.

“No.”

“Then I did what I had to do. And it’s time that you start doing what _you_ have to do.” She pushed back at him. “I remember what your dad said before he died. He was tough on you so that _you’d_ be able to make the big decisions. This is one of them.”

“You’re asking me to look the other way while you do something that’s going to get you killed.”

“No. I’m asking you to let me do what I was sent here for. To finally end the Troubles once and for all. If I end _with_ them, then I’m just collateral damage.”

* * *

 

The sun rising over the water near Tuwiuok Bluff would have been beautiful any other morning. On this morning, however, Reverend Edmund Driscoll gathered with a swarm of followers and preached about the evils of the Troubled and the need for a cleansing.

Holly watched, obscured by trees and undergrowth, blade in hand. Despite her disgust for him, she already felt a small triumph. The brake lines to his vehicle were cut as an insurance policy. Nevertheless, she waited for a moment of a different sort.

A general buzz went through the crowd when a blue Bronco came up the dirt road. She saw Nathan and Audrey emerge from the vehicle. Holly knew she would have to maintain her distance; prolonged proximity to this version of her mom was proving challenging.

Had Duke kept his word? Holly had to think so, if she was an accurate reader of body language. Her mom looked poised to attack. Her dad looked poised to defend. And they were both focused on Edmund Driscoll.

Nathan was the first to speak. “Rev, we’re going to have to ask you to come with us.”

“I’m a little busy right now, Nathan,” Driscoll responded.

That drew chuckles from the crowd.

“Conrad and Marion Brower were murdered last night,” Audrey spat out.

“A loss, to be certain, but the danger they posed on this town makes that loss acceptable. And as you know, I was with you, Officer Parker. So I fail to understand why I am needed away from my gathered flock.”

“You had them killed, all so you could make a point,” Nathan accused.

A rumble went through the crowd.

“Would you stop and look at yourselves?” Audrey called out. “Driscoll speaks of righteousness, of purity of heart. I’m here to tell you today that he knows how to end the Troubles.”

“Yeah!” someone called out. “By wiping out the pestilence of this town!”

“By killing innocent people in the middle of the night in front of their children? By threatening babies?” Audrey’s shouts permeated through the crowd. “Ending the troubles won’t come by intimidation or threats, the spilling of blood on the streets or in this grove. You’ve got to turn your back on what Driscoll is saying. Stop giving him power over you.”

“Driscoll speaks the truth!” another person cried out.

“We’ve known each other all our lives, Tom,” Nathan addressed the man who called out. “We played little league baseball together, we snuck into your dad’s liquor cabinet when we were in high school. I was at your daughter’s christening. You came to my father’s funeral. Audrey is not lying when she says that all of this can end, and it doesn’t have to end the way this day began.”

“Audrey is unnatural, evil.” Driscoll chimed in. “Twenty-seven years ago, she was Lucy Ripley. Twenty-seven years before, a woman named Sarah. Before that, someone named Madeleine.”

“She brings the Troubles!” another man shouted.

“Killing her will end them!” a woman added.

That drew Driscoll’s ire and, Holly thought, his sense of self-preservation. “No! You mustn’t!”

“Which is it, Rev?” Nathan asked. “She’s either evil or not.” Audrey looked at him and nodded slightly. Holly could hear the strain in his voice. She wondered how difficult it must be for him to say his next words. “Either she must be killed, or you must let your vendetta against the Troubled go. You can’t have it both ways.”

Holly understood what her parents were doing. Cornering him.  If anyone made a move against Audrey and killed her, Driscoll, too, would fall. But if Driscoll backed down from his declarations, he lost the favor of the crowd. Would that be enough to change the course of events to come?

The snapping of a fallen branch behind her alerted Holly to danger, but not before she felt a hand over his mouth and a powerful arm encircle her waist.

* * *

“She is unnatural, to be certain, but killing her may only unleash more of her poison,” Driscoll replied, gathering his calm. He looked up, seeing Holly and her captors. 

Audrey and Nathan did simultaneously, as well.

“Let her go,” Nathan commanded, his voice deep and steely.

“You have no authority here,” Driscoll seethed toward Nathan. “Bring that young woman here.”

As Driscoll’s men brought Holly closer to the reverend, she dug her heels in, doing everything in her power to avoid proximity to Audrey.

Nathan took a step forward, but Audrey reached out and placed her hand on his chest, halting his movements. “She’ll be okay,” Audrey whispered, trying to calm Nathan. “If nothing else, when she gets close to me, she’ll go back from where she came.”

“You started this, but I’m going to end it.” Driscoll reached out and stroked Holly’s cheek. “If nothing else, I should thank you. You put me in touch with my higher calling—and if I’m right, it need not happen this way.” He stepped back and gave a slight nod to one of the men who pulled out a knife.

Holly jumped. An elbow to the stomach of the man who held her caught him unaware. She pulled him over her shoulder, using his lurching movement against him. With all the force she could muster, she slammed her booted foot on the man’s shin, which left him writhing.

The man with the knife, however, grabbed her by the throat.

Wordlessly, Nathan fired his pistol at the man who brandished the knife, piercing him in the side. The knife fell to the ground as the man clutched at himself. 

Several members of the crowd withdrew their weapons and pointed them squarely at Nathan.

“Put them down,” Audrey commanded, stepping in front of Nathan.

Driscoll nodded toward his followers. “Put them down,” he instructed. His eyes locked on Audrey. _Check._

Driscoll swiftly moved forward and grabbed Holly’s hand and pressed it against the wounded man’s side. The man cried out in agony. “That blood’s on your hands,” he hissed at her.

“Then what’s a little more?” Holly asked, switchblade coming from her sleeve. She sank the blade deep within the rev’s chest. His blue eyes were wide with shock, but Holly barely noticed as she looked at Audrey and Nathan. “I’m sorry.”

Driscoll’s legs collapsed beneath him. He gasped for breath.

And so did Holly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting close to the end. :)


	9. Life Goes On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've reached the end of this journey. I hope you all enjoy this final part. :)

**Part Nine: “Life Goes On”**

“Driscoll’s dead. His followers have scattered, but we have a solid lead on the ones who went to Marion and Conrad’s place last night.” Nathan’s eyes fell on the bloodstained earth where the rev had fallen. Police photographers were packing up. The coroner’s office had left several minutes earlier with his body.

When Holly had doubled over in pain, Audrey felt her own insides being twisted. She thought it was to be her end, as well. And then Holly faded before their eyes and the pain subsided.

She wasn’t sure how the newspaper could spin this, not when an entire crowd of bewildered people had witnessed Driscoll’s end and Holly’s disappearance.

Then again, she was so spent she didn’t care anymore.

“Holly’s gone,” Audrey added numbly. “Why aren’t I?”

Nathan reached over, took her hand in his, and squeezed it. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to second guess it.”

“I should be happy that it’s over, but I just feel so…empty. She was ours, and we never got the chance to know her.”

Nathan pushed Audrey’s hair back from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. “She did something incredibly brave. That tells us what we need to know about her.” Nathan swallowed hard, thinking of the brazen young woman with Audrey’s smile and his chin. She had blown into their lives like a hurricane, changing everything they thought they knew. Maybe one day he would know her again, albeit in a different life. “Parker, there’s something else you should know.”

She looked at him quizzically.

“I think the Troubles are over. I can feel a rock in my boot. No telling how long’s it been there.”

“That’s—good.”

“People can put this behind them. Start to heal.”

“Start to heal,” Audrey echoed, almost bitterly. “Marion was so scared for Sheldyn. Now her daughter has no mother. How many lifetimes have I lived? And Marion didn’t even get to have the one. How is this right or fair?”

“Marion died saving her child.”

“And as it turns out, our child died saving me. _Us_.”

“Audrey!” Duke’s voice cut through the thick air. He ducked under the yellow police tape, rushed toward her, and pulled her into his arms, picking her up off the ground.

“I’m okay,” she said almost as much for her benefit as for Duke’s.

Duke heard Nathan clear his throat and held on to Audrey for another few seconds for effect before setting her down. “I heard Driscoll’s dead.” Duke began. “But you’re still here? You found another way!”

“Somehow Holly did,” Nathan explained.

“Where is she?” Duke asked looking around.

“Duke, she’s gone,” Audrey replied wearily.

Duke’s smile quickly faded, replaced by a crestfallen gloom. “Gone?”

Nathan briefly sketched the details of the confrontation with Driscoll and his followers, how Holly’s blade found its mark, and how she, too, felt its effects before fading out of existence.

“Holly’s not dead,” Duke said with certainty.

“Duke…” Nathan’s warning tone came out low and dangerous. The last thing he wanted was Audrey’s hopes being raised without cause. Or his own, for that matter.

“I mean it. Just listen. Holly told me about how you and the rev balance each other. But when Nate here knocked you up in her timeline, it threw everything out of whack. That’s why Driscoll was able to gain power. But that energy within other-you was transferred to Holly. When she killed the rev, she took on the effects, not you.”

“So that’s it? I get to just…live?”

“The beauty of it is I think Holly will, too.” He reached down and touched her flat stomach.

“There’s no one home down there,” Audrey said sullenly.

“You sure? Weren’t you two…getting closer last night?”

“It’s too soon.”

“Just takes once.” Duke shook his head. “What Holly did for you was a gift, Audrey. Holly’s gift to you and Nathan. Don’t waste it.”

* * *

 

The light spray of the sea on his face couldn’t bring Duke from his thoughts. He replayed Holly’s story in his head, determined to preserve some part of the young woman who was. 

A lifetime relived in under an hour.

If circumstances had been different, he would have pursued her to the ends of the earth.

“Duke?”

He froze. That voice.

He turned and saw she wore one of his denim shirts. It fell mid-thigh.

He grinned at his tall, leggy, blond companion. He wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, but maybe he would find out exactly what, if anything, she had on under his shirt. “You’re looking very fetching and alive.” 

* * *

 

The weeks ticked by. Slowly life returned to what passed as normal in Haven, Maine. The painful reminders were still around; whitewashing the clapboard siding of Good Shepherd Church couldn’t entirely erase the perceived shadow it cast or change the blood that was spilled there. Nor did an end to the Troubles entirely restore trust, but it was a start.

Families began to regroup.

Conrad’s sister and brother-and-law took Sheldyn and planned to adopt her. Seeing the baby held by the red-haired woman so tenderly, Audrey knew that Sheldyn would have what she needed most: love. But it still gnawed at Audrey that the baby would never know her mother or father.

Others said goodbye to Haven.

Shortly after the confrontation on Tuwiuok Bluff, Duke set out on the _Cape Rouge._ Audrey wasn’t sure whether Nathan was relieved to have the smuggler out of his hair—or disappointed. Duke promised he would be back, but he had been in one place for too long. When they said goodbye, Audrey thought she caught a glimpse of movement on the fishing boat, as though someone else was there. The knowing look Duke gave her all but confirmed it, but she let it go at that.

Nathan acclimated to life with feeling, though there was unquestionably an adjustment period. He realized certain things quickly. For one, breaking up a bar fight wasn’t quite as easy to do when he could feel the brawlers land a few licks on him. For another, the mattress on his bed had to go. Audrey agreed with that, as the two settled into a routine of alternating nights, some at her place, some at his, and she could feel the springs of his mattress poking into her back.

They still worked on cases together from time to time, though these were far more run-of-the-mill than anything Troubles-related. His responsibilities as chief of police frequently had him on an entirely different schedule, from attending town meetings at night to figuring a post-Troubles budget for the police department in the wee hours of the morning. They grabbed lunch when they could or sometimes shared dinner in his office or hers. Though they tried to keep their relationship professional at the station, it was an open secret that the two were more than colleagues.

Both were also aware they were navigating deep waters.

Initially, there was an unspoken hesitancy between them. Were they brought together because of the intensity of their work and the Troubles? Could they sustain a relationship outside of the heightened drama?

And then there was the letter. Nathan had been so angry—so hurt—about the note she left him. That didn’t dissipate immediately.

But at the end of the day, he wanted her by his side, and she wanted him by her side.

Physically, they were so attuned to one another that she literally craved him. She had wondered if regaining his sense of touch would lessen the impact of their touches, but he seemed equally effected by her.

“I can feel the whole world, but the only one I want to feel is you,” he murmured to her one night in the darkness. Wordlessly, she pressed against him and the two moved in rhythm, slowly at first but later with increasing frenzy, until they were both left panting and sated.  

This she would never grow tired of, the fit of their bodies, the fit of their hearts.

One night, he asked her to marry him, but she couldn’t say yes. In the back of her mind, she worried. Were they truly free of the Troubles? Would she disappear again? She would stay with him for as long as she could. Forever, she hoped.

_If we had a million nights, it wouldn’t be enough._

Did the lack of a marriage license make her less committed to him? Though he took her refusal in stride—at least ostensibly—she wondered how he perceived it, especially after the letter. She had caught Nathan looking at it again one night. He had folded it and placed it in his wallet. How many times had he completed that ritual?

She wasn’t Audrey Parker and didn’t know who she was originally. They couldn’t get married without her birth certificate, but she couldn’t get a legitimate birth certificate. Yet she had to make him see that she would never willingly leave him again.

One night, she took Nathan’s wallet, removed the letter from it, and burned the piece of paper in the fireplace. He watched. Saying nothing, she slipped into bed next to him.

“Why did you do that?”

“Why did you hold on to it?” she retorted softly. She traced the contours of his lips. “I do love you, Nathan,” she whispered as she snuggled against him.

“When did you know?”

She smiled. “I think it was when you asked me out for lobster.”

He grinned in return, a once-rare expression that, to her delight, was becoming more and more common. “I should’ve asked you out for lobster a long time ago.”

“About that, there’s really something we should check on.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you think it’s okay for pregnant women to eat lobster?”

His eyes widened. “Are you…?”

“Hungry for lobster?” she finished with a husky laugh. “Yes.”


End file.
